Elephants and Squirrels

Marcus:  Just a second.  I'm looking for another Funny Farmer to help me tell a joke.  Buddy, I need your help.

Buddy:  You want my help to tell a joke?

Marcus:  Yes.  Once there was a football game between two teams of animals.

Buddy:  Two teams of animals.  That's kind of a general description.  Can you be more specific?

Marcus: Yes, a team of big animals and a team of little animals.

Buddy:  Are we talking elephant and squirrel sizes?

Marcus:  It doesn't matter.

Buddy:  So there are elephants and squirrels on the teams?

Marcus:  If you want them on the team, sure.  The first half of the game didn't go well for the little animals.

Buddy:  An elephant stepped on a squirrel?

Marcus:  Not that I know of., but the big animals were winning.

Buddy:  Well, I can understand the big animals winning.  I can just see a little squirrel trying to tackle an elephant.  Or what if the squirrel tried to block the elephant?  No, I can't look!

Marcus:  Stop crying, the squirrel is fine, Buddy.

Buddy:  I'm so relieved.

Marcus:  Things changed during the second half when the centipede showed up and scored so many touchdowns the little animals won the game.

Buddy:  So where was the centipede during the first half of the game?

Marcus:  That's what the chipmunk asked when the game was over.

Buddy:  And what did the centipede say?

Marcus:  He said ... Uh, oh, I forget the punchline.

Buddy:  That doesn't make any sense.

Marcus:  Seriously, Buddy, I've forgotten the punchline.

Cyndi:  That's okay, Marcus.  I read the same joke.  When the chipmunk asked where the centipede was during the first half of the game, the centipede responded, "Put -

Marcus:  "Putting on my shoes!"  

Cyndi:  Well, for one who forgot the punchline, you sure spoiled mine!

Black and Gus and Navy

Merci:  It looks like I'm the only one that showed up to write our post for today so this will be a solo report.

In the same humorous vein as our recent story of Jan's strange footwear ( Imaginary Shoe Inserts), I heard a true story I'd like to share.

A man traveled occasionally for his job.  One day he found one navy sock under the bed where he stayed.  He took it home and put it in the laundry.  See, he wore only black socks and he knew his wife would go crazy trying to match the one navy sock; however, she didn't have any problem finding it a mate.

One day he noticed he was wearing one black and one navy sock.

Getting even with the jokester must have been such fun!

And by the way, that was not Jan's first mismatched shoes experience. Back in 2005, she wrote Black and Gus for her spiritual-minded Mercy and Percy blog. 

Just for the record, Black and Gus were not the names of Jan's shoes. They were two cows... sort of.
 

Boiling Weekend

Buddy:  You won't guess how we spent our weekend!

Cyndi:  Yes, I will.  I was here.

Buddy:  I wasn't talking to you.  I was talking to our friends reading this.

Cyndi:  Does that mean I can't tell them?  I mean, you asked the question; I should get to answer.

Buddy:  Oh, go ahead. 

Cyndi:  We spent the weekend watching Jan boil water and pour it into containers when it cooled.  We have water bowls and pitchers in the fridge, on the table, and even in the bathroom so Jan can brush her teeth and take sponge baths.

Buddy:  She "washed" her hair Saturday night with boiled (not boiling) water and apple cider vinegar - no shampoo.  Dishwater gets a few drops of bleach and dish soap and are rinsed with boiling water poured from a teakettle.

Cyndi:  So far Jan has managed to rinse the dishes and not her fingers.

Buddy:  A boil water notice for this area was put out by the city Friday morning because of a leaking water main but Jan learned of it by accident on Facebook Friday night.  So she boiled water and hoped our water wasn't affected since we had all been drinking it.

Cyndi:  Saturday morning a boil water notice was put in her door.  Soon she saw a man taking a water sample from the new fire hydrant.  He said they were sending in samples hoping for a one day turn around so the boil water could be lifted Sunday afternoon.  Yeah!

Buddy:  But wait!  Sunday morning the same line broke in a different place and was repaired. 

Cyndi:  It's hot and humid here.  Pots of boiling water make the house hotter and more humid.  This makes all of us more thirsty.  Thus, Jan has to boil more water to fill our bowls.

Buddy:  She's not complaining, though.  Not as long as there is any potential for contaminated water that could make us ill.

Cyndi:  You'd think she would build a fire in the dog pen, since there's no grass to catch fire, and boil the water outside.

Buddy:  That sounds like a great idea.  Let's suggest it to her!

Late Sunday night update -
Cyndi:  Whoo hoo.  Jan just saw on FB that the Mayor posted a message lifting the boil water notice.  The bacteriological survey showed our water is safe.

Buddy:  She'd do the happy dance but she's so tired she'd probably have to do it face-down on the floor. 

Cyndi:  That sounds like a good idea to me.  She can do the happy dance on the floor.  We'll take the bed.

Bridge Remembrance Day

Taylor:  I'm not sure why we're doing this post today.  The only one of these animals I recognize is Sam.

Buddy:  The others are before your time, although you just missed Cameron by a few months.

Taylor:  But who are they all?

Buddy:  Beloved furries that have left us.  Grayce passed away two years before the blog debuted but she is still an honorary FF member. 

Cyndi:  Jenny and Grayce traveled here with Jan.  They were already seniors by then; not Jan's first cats, but the original Funny Farmers, even before we had a blog.  Crystal and Cotton were the first local cats to join them.

Taylor:  I thought Jan doesn't believe in the Rainbow Bridge, so why are we posting on it?

Cyndi:  We are remembering those who helped establish the Funny Farm.  They were a part of our family and we want to remember them with love and respect.

Taylor:  And who are all those in the collages below?  I recognize many of them because they have passed away since I moved here.  Cameron and Sam are even included.

Buddy:  Ann of Zoolatry has made a graphic for so many bloggers who have lost a furry over the years.  These are just a fraction of those.  We furries don't live as long as humans do and the losses among blogging animals are staggering - so many more friends than those below have been lost over our blogging years. 

Cyndi:  So Deb Barnes started the Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day.  I believe this is the second one.

Buddy:  This is why we are posting on Sunday.  We want to remember those who came before and to join the blog hop.

Cyndi:  We are headed to bed and won't be able to participate until Jan returns from church because she won't tell us the password, but the blog hop is at Zee & Zoey Cat Chronicles.

Invitation For Lunch

Cyndi:  A little closer, Jan.  I can't reach the treat from here.

Merci:  You couldn't reach the treat on the front porch last week either.  Are you getting shorter?

Cyndi:  Of course not.  You're joking with me, right?

Merci:  Yes, I am joking but about a bird, not a treat.  The refugee from a thunderstorm on our front porch. 

Cyndi:  It was a bad storm.  I wonder why the bird was trying to fly in the wind?

Merci:  Maybe it was blown out of a tree?

Cyndi:  We'll never know.

Merci:  But it was nice that for a short time we could shelter a scared and weary bird.

Cyndi:  You know Marcus.  He wanted to invite it for lunch.

Merci:  I've never figured out whether he means "for lunch" as a guest or "for lunch" as the lunch.

Cyndi:  We'll probably never know that either.


We are joining the Pet Parade blog hop with hosts Rascal and Rocco,  Bionic Basil, Barking From the Bayou and Love is being owned by a husky.

Imaginary Shoe Inserts

Rusty:  Jan's never going to win the Brightest Human of the Continent Award.

Micah:  Not even the Brightest Human of the County Award.

Rusty:  Do you think we could at least put her name in for the Human Running on Half a Cylinder Award?

Micah:  Not a chance!

Rusty:  *sigh*  I had such high hopes for this year.  If we aren't going to win anything, I guess we might as well tell a joke.

Micah:  Okay.  Tuesday morning Jan leaped out of bed -  No, let me begin again.  Tuesday morning Jan crawled out of bed and wandered around from chore to chore as fast as her feet and fuzzy brain could travel.

Rusty:  Before she even leashed the dogs for a walk, her feet and legs hurt.  Not unusual.  But even though she wasn't wearing inserts, one foot felt like it was on a heel insert and the other felt as if the insert had fallen out.

Micah:  "Oh, great, now these shoes are falling apart, too," she complained.  "I need to find something to change into before I leave for lunch."

Rusty:  She survived the walk but was so busy she forgot to change shoes.

Micah:  She ate lunch at the crowded church soup kitchen. (Yummy sausage dogs and banana pudding - she didn't even bring us a crumb.)  Then she went shopping at Wal-mart with two ladies.

Rusty:  When Jan got home, she rushed the dogs outside to the pee pen, then raced around the kitchen putting away a few groceries.  All she wanted to do was to collapse into a chair and take off those uncomfortable shoes that were causing so much pain!

Micah:  She stopped beside the kitchen table, took a breath, and for the first time that day, she looked down at her feet.

Rusty:  She can't believe no one noticed she was wearing two different shoes.

Micah:  I guess we should be thankful they were at least the same color!

Rusty:  Yes, they were - muddy.



We're joining Pepi Smart Dog for today's Thankful Thursday blog hop.

Hearty Duck Stew

Marcus:  Hey, everybody, welcome to Marcus's pet food review.

Buddy:  Whoa!  How did this become your review?

Marcus:  I didn't think you were interested since you and Merci didn't show up when Jan opened the package.

Merci:  Why should we?  You'd just hog all the photos, as usual.

Marcus:  Well, I was there for the photoshoot.  I think it should be my - okay, don't glare at me - our review.

Buddy:  That's better.  I think we should first mention we're trying some Whole Earth Farms grain free Hearty Duck Stew.

Merci:  Look at those big chunks of -  What?  Micah, get your nose out of that can and stop eating our breakfast!

Micah:  But it's good.  Meat chunks in gravy. Very tasty.

Marcus:  I'll stand guard as Jan spoons some hearty duck stew over our breakfast kibble and you read the ingredient list, Buddy.

Buddy:  Let's see.  Duck, chicken broth, chicken, peas, carrots, dried egg product, chicken liver, natural flavor, dried potatoes, sweet potatoes ... blueberries, flaxseed oil, olive oil, and vitamins and minerals.  Chewy lists these as the Key Benefits -

    For all stages of life.
    Real meat is the first ingredient.
    Free of grain, corn, wheat, soy and rice.
    No artificial preservatives, flavors or colors.
    Free of carrageenan.
    Made in the USA.

Marcus:  Now for the taste test.  This is one of those wonderful occasions when I get to eat in my Private Dining Car.  Waiting ... waiting ....

Marcus:  And diving in. 

Buddy:  Jan, remember us?  We're taste testing, too. 

Merci:  As you can tell, the Whole Earth Farms Hearty Duck Stew has been a tasty hit with all three of us canines and at least one feline.


The dog food for this review was provided by Chewy. We received no other compensation and any opinion expressed is entirely our own.

Missing Memories

Merci:  2015 was a year of injuries, sadness and blessings for us.  In February Jan flew solo across the room and crashed, leaving her with multiple injuries, including a bad head injury and two black eyes. 

Percy:  In March Cameron died, was buried, dug up by a coyote during the night, his body retrieved and re-buried.

Merci:  Jan dug up the dog pen to plant grass that didn't grow.

Taylor:   I barely had opportunity to get to know Sam.  I arrived in mid-November.  He had a stroke in early December and died January 5, 2016. 

Percy:  It was a painful, sad year that Jan doesn't want to repeat.  She survived and we lost two of our furry brothers.  Our old posts are sometimes sprinkled with fairy dust but they are also a diary of sorts.  Memories.

Merci:  We don't know if anyone has noticed yet, but all of our 2015 photos have been missing from our blog for a month or two.  There are no photos from our 2015 album in any posts they were used in, whether in 2015 or 2016.  Ever since Google switched our blog photo albums from Picasa to Google Archives.

Percy:  Please don't tell us not to worry, they're not lost, they're somewhere.  We know they aren't lost!  We know where they are.  What we can not do is see them on the blog - because of a setting which we can not access because Picasa no longer exists and there is no way to change the setting.  All the other albums have a different setting and are fine.

Taylor:  Jan had contact with someone in a forum that was going to pass the problem up to Google.  We don't know if we reached the end of the line with this, or if our problem is stalled in line with many others.  We do know Google has no end of Bloggers needing some kind of help.

Merci:  And there may be nothing that can be done!  We can only wait.  And pray for help to resolve this.  We have so many memories in our 2015 blog posts.

Percy:  Jan thought of trying to reinsert pictures into the old posts but re-posting stories for a year would not only be a monumental task, getting the right pictures in the correct places would be nearly impossible.

Taylor:  We had no idea we would not be able to make changes to our Google Photos settings, or that the Archives would be managed by GP settings, so we have been very discouraged about this whole situation.  We seriously considered closing the blog when we first saw all those blank photo holders.

Merci:  Here is one of our 2015 posts (Surprising Update on Cameron).  Notice the missing photos.  

Percy:  There are crucial, life-changing events happening in the world - for example, the catastrophic flooding and rescue efforts in Louisiana - so we feel a bit selfish desiring a solution to what is, in comparison, a minor problem.

Taylor:  Still, we pray for a positive outcome.  And for the people of Louisiana.

Storming the Doghouse

Rusty:  Jan hates me. She honestly hates me.

Buddy:  What did she do now?

Rusty:  She left me outside Wednesday.

Buddy:  But you begged to go outside.  She told you there was a storm coming and you ignored her.

Rusty:  Yes, I asked to go out in the dog pen.  But she forgot me!  She vacuumed the rug, took a shower, worked on the computer...  She didn't remember me until almost 10 PM.

Buddy:  That is forgetful.  What did you do when the storm hit?

Rusty:  What do you think I did?  I sat in the doghouse and watched the sky light up and listened to the thunder roll as the rain poured down.

Buddy:  You weren't even damp when Jan came looking for you so you were safe and dry.  I hope the next time Jan tries to keep you inside you'll do what she tells you.

Rusty:  Why?   That was exhilarating.  I haven't felt so alive since I was a kitten.

Buddy:  You were terrified, weren't you?

Rusty:  Yes.  I cowered and shook and cried for Jan to come rescue me.

Buddy:  It's okay to be afraid.  You can cry on my shoulder if you'd like.

Rusty:  Thanks, but I plan to go make Jan feel so guilty she won't ever forget me again.

Buddy:  Is it okay if I watch?

Rusty:  Of course.  I'm about to enter Stage Right.  Come watch and learn.


We are joining the Pet Parade blog hop with hosts Rascal and Rocco,  Bionic Basil, Barking From the Bayou and Love is being owned by a husky.

Hot Footed Senior Citizens

Rusty:  You dogs seem to have such interesting walks.  I wonder if I should start walking with you.

Merci:  I don't think you'd enjoy it.  You'd have to walk on a leash.

Rusty:  That's okay.  I could learn.

Merci:  You'd have to walk with Marcus:

Rusty:  Never mind.  I can stay home.

Merci:  What made you think you'd like to go walking with us?

Rusty:  I look at the pictures you bring home and think how exciting it would be to see the scenes in person.

Merci:  A couple of weeks ago, Jan stopped and turned toward the mill.  This is what we saw.  Storm clouds.

Rusty:  I can see storm clouds at home.

Merci:  When we looked to the right, we saw Jan's favorite old tree and an unsettling sky.

Rusty:  I'd sure love to climb that tree if I had claws.

Merci:  But when we looked to our left, we saw a beautiful white cloud.  It looked like a fluffy white dog waving it's front paws with joy.

Rusty:  It looked like a what?

Merci:  Okay, you had to be there to see it in the original size.  It was enormous.  It loses a little ... a lot in a photograph, but it sure was a happy cloud.

Rusty:  I didn't know a cloud could be happy.

Merci:  It made Jan smile.  And then we hot-footed it home at a senior citizen's pace before the storm hit.

Rusty:  Isn't "hot-footed it home at a senior citizen's pace" an oxymoron?

Merci:  How would you describe Jan, two old dogs and a young one racing to beat a storm?

Rusty:  Huffing and puffing with tongues hanging out.

Merci:  Yeah, that works.  But don't tell Jan.


 We're joining Pepi Smart Dog for today's Thankful Thursday blog hop.

I and Love and You Cats

Percy:  Do I look okay?  Is this how I should pose?  Can everyone see what's in the box?

Cyndi:  No, the box is too far away, but you're looking good, Percy!

Rusty:  Here's a clear shot of what's in the box.

Taylor:  It's the I and Love and You Variety Pack canned cat food.

Rusty:  There are three recipes:  Oh my cod!, Chicken me out, and Purrky Turkey.  All the ingredients are listed at the above link.

Micah:  Right now Chewy has a case of 12 3-oz cans on sale. 

Marcus:  Can I help taste test it?  The pate smells appetizing.

Rusty:  No, you aren't a cat.  You can't have any.

Percy:  Hey, Cyndi, you've inhaled most of your breakfast before Jan could even turn on the camera.

Cyndi:  This Oh My Cod Recipe is delicious!

Micah:  It should be.  It has Cod, Chicken Liver, Chicken, Fish Broth, Cranberries, Spinach, Carrots, Natural Flavor, Guar Gum, Sweet Potatoes, Alfalfa Meal, Flaxseed and vitamins and minerals.  

Percy:  It has no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives and no fillers or by-product meals.  Chewy lists the Key Benefits as -

    For all stages of life.
    Real meat is the first ingredient.
    Free of grain, corn, wheat, soy and rice.
    No artificial preservatives, flavors or colors.
    Free of carrageenan.
    Made in the USA.

Rusty:  I like my breakfast topped with a few pieces of cat kibble. 

Micah:  I think I'll just savor this and eat slowly.

Rusty:  Hey, what happened here?  I was eating my breakfast and then Cyndi was eating my breakfast.  Now she's cleaning my plate.

Percy:  That's because Cyndi scarfed hers, invited herself to share Micah's, and then moved in to finish yours.

Taylor:  Percy and I are glad we don't eat in the kitchen.  At least we got to finish our own meal.

Micah:  Too bad you didn't like the Oh my cod recipe from the I and Love and You Variety Pack, Cyndi.  The rest of us did.

Cyndi:  But I -  Oh, you're kidding with me.  It sure was good.  I think I'll go see if Taylor or Percy left any crumbs on their plates.


Chewy provided us with the cat food.  We received no other compensation to deliver an honest review of the product.

Weapon of Mass Mowing

Percy:  Well, we would have had a post for today, except Jan moved a picture and then spent the next hour searching for it, tried to move it back, and searched again while muttering some no-no words at Winton.

Buddy:  You remember Winton (No Problem).  Oh, how Jan wishes we had reverted back to Win 7!

Percy:  It seems Winton only likes to play on his terms.  Otherwise, he packs up his left click Start menu and right click taskbar and leaves in a huff. 

Percy:  Jan says he's a bully.  She's very happy with the programs we use and doesn't want to use MSN apps to coordinate with other devices.

Buddy:  We don't have other devices.  And we've been talking to ourselves without help since long before Winton arrived.

Percy: We suggested Jan take some karate lessons so she can kick Winton's butt, but she said she swings a mean grass whip to mow the lawn so he'd better watch out!

Buddy:  I wish you hadn't said that.  Now I have this mental vision of Jan racing - slowly because she can't breathe when she walks fast! - down the street after a faceless bully while waving a lawn and garden tool.

Percy:  I can't thank you enough for planting that image in my mind too!

Buddy:  Happy to share with you.  Oh ... you were being sarcastic.

Percy:   Yes.  It's time to shut Winton down for the night.  If I see your legs waving in your sleep, I'll know you're chasing after Jan and her weapon of mass mowing in your dreams.

Seven Dollars and Change

Micah:  We've been very busy for a while snoopervising Jan, so please forgive us if we haven't been able to leave comments as often as we would like.  She is way behind in everything.

Merci:   Evidently humans creak and groan and yelp and crackle when they get old and have to prune trees and cut parts of a lawn by hand.

Micah:  She's finally recovering but the yard is on steroids and she is constantly having to swing a grass whip.  You wouldn't believe it to look at the lawn, though. 

Merci:  Our bushes haven't been cut back yet this year.  There are all kinds of things growing among them and they're riddled with those horrible vines with thorns. 

Micah:  All this has to be cut back from the house. She tried to tear out some of the thorns the other night and injured her leg on a pipe hidden by overgrowth. 

Merci:  To give Jan incentive, Marcus suggested we hide a hundred dollar bill in the bushes, but we checked Jan's wallet and she doesn't have one we can steal ... er, borrow.  Cyndi said two ones and a five wouldn't have the same attraction.

Micah:  What about change?  Did she have any change in her wallet?

Merci:  Yes, thirty-seven cents. 

Micah:  How much encouragement do you think we could provide her with for seven dollars and thirty-seven cents?

Merci:  We might encourage her to remember where she keeps the tools.

Micah:  Well, that's a start.  Where did she put her purse?

Merci:  You do realize we would be robbing Jan to pay Jan, don't you?

Micah:  Of course.  I read somewhere  that's how high finance works.

The Flying Grate

Rusty: I'm still in shock.  Jan tried to kill Cyndi Tuesday night.

Marcus:  She did?  How did I miss that?

Rusty:  I think you dogs were sleeping in the living room, but we cats were in the kitchen.

Marcus:  How did Jan try to kill you, Cyndi?

Cyndi:  She threw one of these gas stove grates at me.  And it was red hot!

Marcus:   She did what!

Micah:  Oh, come on, stop kidding around.  Jan did not throw a red hot grate at any of us.

Cyndi:  She did too.  And it just missed me.

Micah:  By a mile.  Well, by a several feet.  But she did not throw it at you!

Rusty:  I saw it.  Good thing I was on the other side of the room. 

Cyndi:  Well, if she didn't throw it at me, who ... whom ... why did she throw it?

Micah:  Because when she was wiping down the stove, she grabbed the grate and it was so hot she tossed it without thinking.  She had the burner turned on so low to heat veggies for dinner, she didn't notice it needed to be turned off.

Marcus:  *nodding*  Until she grabbed the grate.

Micah:  Exactly.  Have you ever picked up hot metal with a bare paw?

Rusty:  No.  I think I can do without that experience.

Micah:  So could Jan, but it happened.

Cyndi:  So that's why she ran cold water over her finger right away.  But she put something on it and went back to washing dishes.

Micah:  Undiluted tea tree oil.  A little at a time until the burning stopped.

Rusty:  So if she had hit one of us she would have doused us with that oil?

Marcus:  No! Tea tree oil should never be used on a cat or dog.  (Pet Poison Helpline)

Cyndi:  But it works for humans?

Micah:  Yes, for "minor" burns.  This is not the first time Jan has grabbed something hot and gotten a painful burn.  The tea tree oil takes away the pain and she doesn't even get a blister to remind her of what happened.  (It's not advised for a large area or a deep tissue burn because there would be the possibility of the skin healing before the inner tissue has.)

Marcus:  I've seen Jan coat fire ant bites with it too.  The bites still blister and the itching hangs around for a while, but the burning pain goes away.

Micah:  Are you guys going to retract your story that Jan tried to kill you?

Rusty:  I will if Cyndi will.

Cyndi: I will if Jan apologizes for almost scaring the poop out of me when I saw that grate go flying by.  On second thought, I will if she breaks out the fishy flakes.  


Jan:  This is not an ad of any kind.  Just sharing some information that has helped me many a time!  It's so easy to grab something hot and get a blister burn.  And anyone who lives in fire ant territory knows how painful it is to be attacked by them.  I have found it harder to stop the burning pain from fire ant bites than from grabbing something heated.   I always keep a small bottle of tea tree oil handy. 

Honorary Cat

Taylor:  I found these old pictures of Angel Cameron.  He must have been sleeping.  His eyes are closed.

Merci:  There are so few pictures of Cameron with his beautiful, expressive eyes open.  Whenever Jan got out the camera, Cameron closed his eyes and refused to open them.

Taylor:  So Cameron didn't like to have his picture taken?

Percy:  No, he hated the camera! But we sure were thankful to have him as part of our fur family.

Merci:  That's a Gizzy Quilt beneath him.

Taylor:  What's a Gizzy Quilt?

Percy:  A lot of the old timers will remember when Darling Millie's Mom Lynn was making them for other bloggers.  They were named after Millie's brother Angel Gizzy.

Taylor:  Oh, Jan made us kitties dishpan beds with them last winter. 

Merci:  Yes, and they're a nice size for me too.

Percy:  No, they're not.  You're too big for a dishpan.

Merci:  I meant the quilts are a nice size for me too.

Percy:  That's because Jan claims you're the perfect size dog - too big to want to be carried and too small to drag her down the road.

Merci:  Don't forget you promised to make me an honorary cat.

Percy:  We'll have the ceremony just as soon as you master the purr.


 We're joining Pepi Smart Dog for today's Thankful Thursday blog hop.

Window Seat

Micah:  Hey, Buddy, I found these old photos from before I was born.  Why are you perched on a cat scratching post?

Cyndi:  In his younger years Buddy thought he was a cat and he climbed on everything.  You can see the window seats Jan used to have for us cats.  She put the cat scratcher on top of a storage container so Buddy could have a window seat too.

Buddy:  I loved that window seat.  I spent many an hour keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

Cyndi:  You mean you were keeping an ear out for gossip.

Buddy:  That too, but I sat guard so no one would steal our car.

Micah:  So it kept you out of trouble?

Cyndi:  *snicker*

Micah:  Do you remember what was so interesting outside that day?

Buddy:  2007 was a long time ago.  I don't see the car parked in front of the house, so perhaps I was looking for Jan to return.

Cyndi:  To return with food, most likely.  Buddy used to be obsessed with food.  It didn't matter where Jan hid it, he climbed or crawled to steal it.

Micah:  That sounds like someone we all know today.  Where are you going in such a hurry, Buddy?

Buddy:  To ask Marcus to steal me a snack.

Roll Into Space

Merci:  Hey, Rusty, what happened?  You're bald.

Rusty:  No, I'm not bald.  Just half naked.

Merci:  Oh, I remember this.  It was taken - can it really be ten years ago? 

Rusty: Yes, I was living with Miss Mother (I'm a good Southern cat) then.  I fell off the refrigerator and Jan thought it was because my fur was matted, so she took me to the groomer for a shave and Miss Mother cried because she feared Jan wouldn't take me back home.

Merci: But you fall off everything - the bookcase, the printer, the air conditioner ...

Rusty:  I do now, but I didn't back then.  Miss Mother wasn't doing well and she had a hard time grooming me.  Now I'm old and a bit forgetful and sometimes I just roll into space and crash.

Merci:  I hope crashing isn't contagious.  Jan likes to fly into space and crash.

Rusty:  I wouldn't worry about it.  You're very sure-pawed on solid ground and you don't ever climb.

Merci:  I sound very boring.

Rusty:  No, not boring.  Safe and sound.  To stay that way, avoid Marcus, keep your distance from Jan and don't nap near where I'm sleeping.

Merci:  I think I'll go spend the day in the closet.