Not A Rembrandt

Good morning, Cameron here to share something nice with you. This was supposed to publish yesterday but our church changed our Wednesday Bible study to Tuesday this week and we got a bit confused when Jan came home and, thinking it was then Wednesday, we scheduled the post for Thursday.  Are you confused?  You've got nothing on us!  And Jan is always confused so if we had asked her what day it was, she would have told us it was already Thursday. 

Things have been kind of ... well, discouraging around here for some time, so when Jan got an opportunity to design a photo canvas for our wall, she decided to uplift us (translate that as uplift herself) with a special design, one to remind her we are blessed despite the trials.

She chose some light, cheery colors.  We helped her pick out some photos with a positive theme, so of course we Funny Farmers got a place of honor.  We insisted our Georgia "angel" furries - Jenny, Grayce, Crystal and Cotton - be included since we loved having each as part of our family and each is greatly missed.  Jan tried to take a photo of the finished product but none did it justice, so we're just going to post a copy of the original graphic.  (The canvas is 16 x 20".)

All we have to do now is decide where to hang it.  It will probably end up on the wall facing us as we take turns working at the computer.  It isn't a Rembrandt, but hopefully it will be a positive reminder to Miss I-Can't-Remember-Anything of some positives in her life.

We hope all of you have many positives in your life too.  (There is a second part to this post but it won't arrive until next week.)

As long as this is publishing on Thankful Thursday, we'd like to express our gratitude to a couple of very dedicated and generous neighbors who traveled to Atlanta every week for the past nine years to pick up a truckload of bread and rolls and, occasionally, sweets to distribute to local residents.

"The bread truck" was an old panel truck purchased specifically for the purpose.  One had to step waaaay high to get into it, so they built a ramp with a rail so even the old and disabled could climb inside to "shop" for bread. 

One morning a week, folks would gather in a local church parking lot.  Some drove a nice vehicle but were perhaps out of work or with a large family, some from a nearby assisted living home, folks from any walk of life.  Sometimes Jan would see a trash truck stop and the driver get in line.  It didn't matter who you were, if you needed bread, you could help yourself to whatever the limit was that day.  One day all you needed, some days only two loaves of bread and some bagels or English muffins.

When they first started, the bread truck would be crammed chock full of break and goodies, but over time, more groups vied for the same amount of bread and then sometimes the pickings would be mighty, mighty slim.She always came home upbeat when she'd found some rye bread among the loaves and even happier when she could get an extra rye for her brother, Mr. Doug.  They both love it.  Rye is too expensive for our budget, so she's going to miss it. 

There was no charge, but Jan always tried to remember to drop a dollar or two into the jar to help with the price of gas. It's sad to think of those who depended on the bread truck to help stretch their budget, but we were so fortunate to have had the help for all these years.

Lamar and Charles, you provided a needed service, and we know if it were possible, you'd continue to make the long drive each week, then stand in the rain, or the cold, or the heat and humidity for hours to distribute it.  We don't eat bread, except when Jan tosses us an occasional crust, but we'd like to thank these men for helping Jan and so many others.  We hope God has a special blessing for them.

Squillions, Gracie and Snoopy

Today is Squillion Day.

Gracie, VSquillion Shelter Keeper, has reported that February has been a good month for adoptions.  Adoptions are closing temporarily, but they will be available again in the near future.  These are a nice way to remember a loved furry who has gone to the bridge.

And speaking of Gracie, her mom should be home today to recuperate from her surgery yesterday.  We send lots of purrs and pawtaps to her.

We adopted Squillion Angel Cotton in memory of our dear tortoiseshell Cotton who left us so suddenly last June. Cotton, Crystal, and Jenny will always be in our hearts, as will all those who came before our time be in Jan's.

Don't forget to go by tomorrow and enter the raffle to help Dashies with Moxie adopt Snoopy, the dog they've been fostering.  It will run March 1 through 15th.  And doesn't every dog and cat need a Frankie Furter quilt? 

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.

Jenny and Squillion Day

I don't believe I know any of you.  I'm Jenny, one of the founding Funny Farmers. I passed away in 2007 at age 17.  I never got to meet Rusty or Sam, but I hear they fit right in and help keep Jan unsteady on her feet and searching for her reading glasses.  They even helped hide Jan's slippers for an entire month and had her convinced she was losing more than a pair of slippers, if you catch my drift.

Well, as you can see, I'm not really Jenny.  I'm a Missy You VSquillion Jan and my siblings adopted in my memory a couple of years ago.  It's nice to know I'm still remembered.

I'm here to celebrate Squillion Day with Derby and Ducky. and also the Cat Bllogosphere, which as far as we know is still in exile (on Blogger) since the CB Wordpress blog was hacked Saturday.  Now Derby & Ducky and KC have real squillions but we are virtual ones JFF adopted from the VSquillion Shelter.

 

Above is the banner displayed at the bottom of this blog.   (Left to right)  Angel Crystal and then Missy You Crystal. Many of you knew my handsome brother Crystal.  Next is our sister Grayce.  We were together for 13 years, even moved cross country together, but Cotton is the only surviving furry of JFF who was privileged to meet her.. There I am to the left of Viola.  Viola was the first virtual Funny Farmer.  They adopted her from the VShelter because even a virtual squillion needs a home. 

It was nice to meet all of you.  Thank you for coming by and helping us celebrate today.  Perhaps the next time the VShelter holds an adoption, you'll consider giving a VSquillion a home.  A literal one is always nice to have but we don't know how to adopt one of them.

Here's the graphic for Jimmy's auction, if you'd like to use it for your blog.

Jan finished the graphics for Furriends of the CB auction for Jimmy of Criz Cats Sanctuary.  Marg expects to open the auction sometime today., Tuesday  Stop by and check it out.  New items will be added periodically.

Criz lost Jeremy and Jerry to the same thing Jimmy is being treated for.- FLUTD (feline lower urinary tract disease).    Mama Jessica survived it.  Jimmy has spent the last few days at the vet's and Criz hopes to have him home soon. 

Criz lives in Malaysia and helps feral cats whenever he can, plus takes care of his own furry J Family..  


We received this email yesterday and even though we weren't interested, it raised some red flags so we did a search and found a lot of bloggers are receiving this message and the consensus of opinion is it appears to be a scam. The email address is from purebloggerss, with a double ss on the end. If you receive this message and are tempted to respond, research it well before visiting. We don't want to send anyone to their site by posting the link, thus we divided up their url.

Hello, someone liked your blog at http://jansfunnyfarmfair.blogspot.com and sent you an invitation to http:// purebloggers .com . Pure Bloggers is a social-network for bloggers and companies. Need more traffic? Want to sell Bannerspace or links? Offer services at your blog? Want to get more readers? Or just share experiences with other bloggers? Get in touch with 1000s of Companies and Bloggers! http:// purebloggers .com is the right place for you. Sign up for free now and join the biggest blogger and companies network!

Christmas 2011

 Merry Christmas to all ...  

furry and human!  May your celebration be filled with peace, love and blessings.

If you haven't already, please grab a copy of our Christmas card. It's for all of you - old friends as well as new. We appreciate each of you.

Thank you, Ann of Zoolatry, for this lovely ornament graphic of our Crystal.  He'll be gone 2 years in January and we still  miss him!  But he's still here with us in spirit as a part of this blog.

We would like to share a Christmas video. Many of you know the song "Mary Did You Know." We've heard it so many times over the last few years. What many don't know is that the lyrics were written by Mark Lowry and the music by Buddy Greene. Jan was searching for a good recording of the song and was delighted to find a video of the two writers performing the song together. The video visual isn't the greatest but the music is. So enjoy.

If the video doesn't play, click here.

PS -- We had this in a box above the post but we're going to post it here instead, in case anyone can help us.If you don't know what we're talking about, be glad.

Last night Blogger suddenly made a new Picasa album for the Christmas card photos we posted.  Not a jff  blog album, a new album with yesterday's date on it, and put all our Christmas cards in it, which was okay because there were a lot of them.  But  today when we tried to add a graphic to this post, it made an entirely NEW dated  album with just the one graphic in it.  We tried adding other pictures and the  same thing - every single picture added created a NEW Picasa dated album.  So we had to delete everything we tried to add today.  We have no idea what is going on or why.  So we need your help.  Anyone else  having this problem?  Anyone know how to resolve it?  We didn't change  any settings, can't even find anything related to this when we google  it. We can't post pictures again until this is resolved. So ... help!

Weekend of Remembrance

We'd like to join with Three Tabby Cats in Vienna and other bloggers to light a candle in a weekend of remembrance for all the friends we've lost. Our handsome Crystal passed away January 2010 and there were others we lost before him, so we know how it is when they leave.

You can post this graphic in your sidebar or in a post, request they light a candle for you, and/or read more about this on Kashim, Othello & Salome's blog.

Cotton has a Poison PSA

Hi, This is Cotton with a PSA (public service announcement) for you today. But first a related story.

Because this is a mill town, even though the mills have closed in recent years, we have wharf rats here. Jan heard of them but never saw one for the first couple of years or so she was here. Then one day she saw a cat with a shiny coat sunbathing in the yard. She went out on the porch for a better look. She walked a wide curve through the yard so she wouldn't scare it away. She got as close as two or three feet from it before it suddenly got up and ambled off and down into the sewer.

Only it wasn't a cat. What from the back had appeared to be a healthy looking cat with a shiny dark coat had a pointed face, bare feet, and a long naked tail! Jan's first thought was that possums don't come in that color. She still has a hard time believing a rat can grown that big.

A few short years later, a hot water pipe under the house broke the day before Christmas and we were without hot water until some time after New Year's. The poor plumber who finally showed up was sick and he was probably quite a bit sicker after crawling around on the frozen ground, but he did manage to install new hot water pipes.

A couple of days later, Jan found Crystal in the bathroom trying to dig through the side of the bathtub. And something on the other side was trying to dig through just as vigorously. Jan had to physically remove Crystal, Jenny and me and close the door. She left a message for the landlord but this kept happening. So she reluctantly called someone in the neighborhood who had some rat poison from the city. Rat poison was thrown under the house and things were quiet for a while.

Then the noises started under the tub in the bathroom again. And in the bathroom wall. Once there was what sounded like the frightened squealing of something small. It gave Jan chills. She could follow the critters as much by where we cats were investigating as by the rustle as they walked between the walls of the house. She kept leaving messages for the landlord. She had more poison thrown under the house, terrified a neighbor's cat would get hold of it.

One night there was the sound of chewing by the front door. Behind the fireplace. Over by the closet. Over by the door to the inside back porch. It was an invasion! Crystal, Jenny and me were racing from one spot to another, trying to dig through the walls. Jan totally lost it. This time she left a late night phone message for the landlord (we should clarify this is an ex-landlord), begging him to send someone over to plug up the opening the plumber evidently left under the bathtub. Her message was tinged with hysteria and it did the trick. She never saw the plumber so he must have come when she wasn't home, but the opening under the tub was finally sealed and the unwelcome visitors have not been heard from since.

We watched a video today that reminded me of this story and I'd like to share it with you. Because even if your human NEVER EVER uses rat poison anywhere on your property, you could still be poisoned, even if you're an indoor kitty. In this video, veterinarian Karen Becker discusses the best ways to protect your pets from ingesting rat poison and what to do if they accidentally have some.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Remembering Crystal

You might remember this graphic..  Today our thoughts are on Crystal who left us one year ago. Jan still gets teary when she thinks of him or looks at a picture. He was a very special kitty.

When Jan moved to Georgia, she decided when Grayce and Jenny died, she would not have any more cats. It was too hard to say good-bye.

A year later she heard what sounded like a kitten. She went outside and there was little Crystal crying his heart out. She learned later someone had dumped 2 orange tabbies and they had been wandering around crying. She doesn't know what happened to the other one, but when Crystal saw her, he ran for the porch, leaped high, hit the concrete side and fell to the ground. Well, that was the end of Jan's resolve. She brought him inside.

The older cats hissed and growled at him but he paid no attention. He was a happy guy and ignored them. Grayce liked to burrow under blankets so she had a big laundry basket with bedding. When she went to bed, so did Crystal. He would climb in, stand on the mound under the blanket and knead until she stopped growling. Then he'd lie down and sleep. Eventually they became best friends and they would share a chair in the kitchen for hours at a time.

He grieved for Grayce when she died. Jan took their chair out of the kitchen for some time because he kept looking for her there.

He was Jan's dog before Merci. For some reason, she could never hear when someone knocked at the door. So Crystal would announce them. Jan would hear him talking and she'd go answer the door. And he greeted anyone who came in.

Not too long before he died, a neighbor came over to blow out the gas space heaters and relight the pilots. Crystal came slowly into the room, then turned and went back into the kitchen. It was distressing to see him retire from his self-appointed greeter duties. He was only 11 years old.

He spent his last few days sleeping in a large laundry basket with bedding to keep him warm. The morning of his departure was wet and dreary. Jan badly injured an already infected toe and Buddy had a seizure. It was an altogether depressing day!

She still misses Crystal curling up on her pillow and purring her to sleep. For some reason, the rest of us kitties stopped sleeping on the bed when Crystal died. And then one day when Jan was very discouraged, Cameron - who had never slept on the bed - dared to take over Crystal's cuddling duties but none of us have tried to take over his sleeping spot.

None of us can take his place. He was unique; we all are.

Crystal, we will always love and remember you. You got your paws in the door and paved the way for the rest of us Georgia Funny Farmers.


Brian of Brian's Home blog made a special request for today. We are just going to borrow it from him and the CB --

Please join us for a special topic if you can. After my post last week about helping shelters out during the cold weather, my friend Kika thought it would be a good idea for all of us to do a post about the importance of helping shelters. Not only has the winter been harsh in some areas of the United States, but the flooding in Australia and the landslides in Brazil, along with other regional issues, makes this a very timely topic. So if you would, on Monday, January 24th, please remind your readers of the importance of helping out your local shelters. I know lots of you do this, but a gentle reminder to those that read your blog sure might help. The little things all add up!

TK and Squashie are both shelter kitties and to help spread shelter awareness, they are having a commentathon today to help the Small Miracles Cat Rescue. All you have to do to help their shelter is to leave a comment. You can help spend their mom's green papers on their Mancat Monday post today. Each comment is worth a $1.00 donation.

And another reminder that our neighbors Friends of Pike County Animals needs your daily vote to get an adoption and education center in their rural Georgia county. You can vote here. Voting will end January 31.

Wags and Tags and Winnie

Today is Cyber Monday - the Monday after Thanksgiving and one of the busiest shopping days of the year for online retailers, so this seems like a good day to post our review for Wags and Tags.

Wags and tags has a line of quality dog tags for the elite dog or for the causal canine, such as Merci.  Above are two of the sterling silver dog bowls, one with a bone of solid 14K yellow gold and one of polished 925 sterling silver. (Sorry, but none of the photos Jan took do the tags justice.)  There are other choices - Diamond bone inlay; Cubic zirconia bone inlay; Silver bone inlay with a single cubic zirconium.

The back of the tag is stainless steel so the information won't rub off.   The dog tag would be engraved with the dog's name and phone number on the back at no additional charge. If you go to customize tag at www.wagsandtags.com you can see how to order the center bone of your choice and how the engraving will look on the back.

Merci chose the silver bone.  Her tag is a medium, about the size of a quarter. 

Jan obligingly attached the bale/connector (top of the tag) which is made of stainless steel instead of sterling silver for additional support so the tag doesn't get lost to the double split ring and added it to Merci's collar.  Jan suggests you find a man with strong fingers to do all the attaching.  She learned the hard way the double split ring is s-t-r-o-n-g!  Her fingers don't work as well as they need to so it was slow going for her. She wore a hole in her finger trying attach the tag to the collar.

After cleaning up the blood, she found out the new tag was hiding behind Merci's rabies tag so you couldn't see it.  :( 

A few days later, Jan tried again.  And finally succeeded. Doesn't Merci look pretty?  She is actually camera shy and hard to get to sit for a photo. (Oh, did Jan ever want to buy Merci a new collar to go with the pretty tag!)

There are also matching owner pendants.  We don't know if you can engrave information on the back of the pendants for humans - probably not - but we think it would be a good idea.  It takes 3 of us to keep Jan in line so she doesn't wander off when we walk her. What if she got lost?  How would we describe her so someone could recognize her if she was found? And with her memory would she even remember her name?

UPDATE: Sandy, the owner of Wags and Tags, advises us that the matching owner pendant can be engraves on the back at no extra cost.  So if you're concerned about your human wandering off and not finding her way home ....

Wags & Tags is available at fine boutiques throughout the country and online at www.wagsandtags.com. Follow them on Twitter @WagsTags.

From now through January 13, 2011, you can use a $20 coupon with a purchase. The promo code is easy to remember: JFF.

In keeping with the FTC disclosure guidelines, Wags and Tags furnished us with a sample tag for Merci to test, but we were not paid to review the product.

We're very sad that Space Paws has lost their 16-year-old Winnie. She left on her new adventure on the 20th but it was too painful for them to post the information. It's always difficult when it's time to say good-bye.  If you haven't already, we hope you will stop by The Adventures of Space Paws to read Winnie's story and leave a message.

And even though Gracie (and her mom) never ask for praise and always ask not to tattle, we want to send many, many thanks to her for the beautiful Christmas header she made for us. It was a wonderful surprise and Jan cried when she saw Crystal in the picture over the mantel. Of course, it didn't ... sniff .... bother any ... sniff, sniff ... of us. Does any cat have a handful of extra tissues?

Tocks, Apology and Abandoned

Happy Birthday, Derby. Here is our Tocktober photo.

Left to right: Crystal, Cotton, Percy.  Cyndi is protecting the nip Shadow, Molly, Troo & Jake sent us last year.  . 

We would like to share this Apology Video with you. It needs no commentary.



If the video doesn't play, click here.

And there is an abandoned pit bull in need of a home in the Los Angeles area.  This dog was rescued from traffic and appears to have been abused.   The Good Samaritan who helped rescue him is trying to find him a happy home where he can receive love and attention.  You can read his story here.

Video and Auction

You've probably already noticed that Gracie and KC of the CB are holding an auction for us Funny Farmers. Gracie's mom made the special, lovely header graphic.  If you notice, there are 9 dogs and cats in the picture.  All bloggersl hate to remove a name from a signature and a furry from a header and when we looked at the original, we so missed Crystal.   So Gracie kindly added him so we could be together for this temporary header. Thank you, Gracie. 

You can visit the auction at Furriends of the CB Auctions. 


We're kind of excited here because yesterday Jan's brother came by to install a new video card and a DVI cable for our computer monitor.  We haven't had a video card since May and graphics have been a big problem.  Even viewing many of your blogs has been a hassle for us. The onboard video can't support this monitor or Photoshop Elements. We hope we're now "in business" for the coming holiday season.  Thank you, Mr. Doug! 

Well, we woofies have to go walk Jan now so we'll all wish you a purring and tail wagging day.

Murph Needs A Home

Today would have been Crystal's 12th birthday, but we lost him in January. 

It seems appropriate on this day when we are missing one of our own to post about a senior kitty that is in immediate need of a home because his owner is dying and her nurse is very allergic to Murph the kitty.  If someone doesn't take him in right away, he will be put to sleep.

You can read his story at Hubble Space Paws' blog. Humans, consider how terribly sad you would feel if you were dying and your beloved pet had to be put to sleep and he wasn't even sick. If you can't adopt him, perhaps you know someone in Maryland who could take him in.

Look at this handsome kitty. He needs your help. Please pass on the information and help save his life.

Friends Glow

Hi, Cyndi here. The guys told me I can do a post by myself today. We know it's easy to confuse us so we'll try to do some individual posts so you can learn to tell us apart. I'm the medium-hair calico.


Jan says she feels "brain dead" now -- can you tell by the title she suggested -- and can't think any more tonight so we're going to set this for auto post in the morning and curl up to watch our one network TV. We wish all of you a very happy and fun weekend. We're going to spend it watching Jan sweat at the computer. Not very exciting, but, hey, we need to keep an eye on her so she doesn't slack off.

She almost had 2 new designs for tonight but at the end she didn't like something and there weren't enough undo turns to restore something she took out, so she's going to have to start over again tomorrow. She's really tired of redoing this one car!

But she did finish Friends Glow - Buddy and Crystal napping together. We like the design because it reminds us how special friends are.

Zoey kindly put us on her Friday To-Do list yesterday.

Thanks Zoolatry for telling your friends about our Zazzle store*.

And while we're on the subject of Buddy Glow, Jan deleted all of the Buddy Glow products at zazzle and redid them all with a larger size and higher ppi. So, yep, we have Jan working hard on our behalf so we don't starve. It's nice to be loved, and we love Jan too even though we pick on her a lot. Thanks to all of you who have been encouraging us in one way or another.

We always enjoy hearing from Lulu and Lolly, the small Maltese dogs with a big sense of humor. We'd like to share a link to their post on National Humin Day Established by Enterprising Canines. We hope you will go by to read it.

Oh, great, for the second night in a row, we set an auto post for the next morning and it proceeded to post immediately. So if you're wondering what is going on with our posts appearing and disappearing, you know as much as we do about it.

Well, thanks for being good listeners. It's been fun doing my own post. I'm not a fast typist like Percy is, so this has been a workout for me. Time for my pre-bedtime nap. Night.

Crystal and Cotton

We received a lovely gift from KC of the Cat Blogosphere today. It's a pendant. KC had one made for her mom when they lost Charlie Taylor, the older kitty she and Auntie Deb rescued.

This is the front of the pendant with our favorite photo of Crystal.

And this is the back of it. Makes you teary, doesn't it!

We can either put a chain on it for a necklace or put it on a key chain with a clip. But since none of us kitties or woofies wear that type of jewelry or carry keys, we are going to give it to Jan and let her decide.

This was made by a lady who sells "whimsical trinkets and keepsakes" at a shop on Etsy called Oliviamoon. Stop by and browse.

Thank you so much, KC! This is something we are sure Jan will treasure. Because as you know from personal experience, humans miss their furries when they pass away.

Update from the comments:
We is so happy you like it, it is furry beautiful.
Miss Susan of OlivaMoon makes beautiful fings, customized just fur you. Mommy ML loves her Charlie Taylor pendant. You can see hers here and on CT's Catster Page (scroll down).
And a chain is on its way to Momma Jan from Susan, so you will haf a way to wear it.
Love & Purrs,
KC


We fear Jan's brain has been affected by the recent mishaps with her toe, so we decided to see if we can jog her creative streak -- you know, the one she left on the school bus when she was a kid. The last two days we have hemmed her in so she can't leave her chair until she finishes her work. Yesterday she finished Buddy Glow. Today we have another new design for our Zazzle store. This one is called Cotton Mosaic. We think Cotton is cute in any design, including the original tortoiseshell she was born with.

The Bumpass Hounds will probably be back blogging today but just in case they aren't, we're going to ask again if you would take a couple of minutes to submit a couple of votes.

We hope you will go to the Toyota Racing site at http://www.sponsafier.com/#/gallery/view/120029 and vote for Trooper Jessica's memorial design.

And after you click to feed shelter and rescue animals at the Animal Rescue Site, as soon as you click the button to feed the shelter animals today --
Look toward the top of the page for the shelter challenge voting button. Click on it.
From the state drop down menu, choose "WV."
At the bottom of the box click "search."
The second shelter listed is AHGRR in Capon Bridge. Click "vote."
To validate your vote, type in whatever type of animal you see: elephant, cow, dog ......

Crystal Came Home

Crystal has a Rainbow Bridge story now, thanks to our friend Bill whose dogs Tinker and Poo help keep us earth furries and humans up to date on the RB news. You might remember Bill's Tinker & Poo from their report on my brother's dog Fraggle last August.When Crystal passed away in late January, Bill was in the hospital or his computer was down, we forget which, so this story was delayed.

Rainbow Bridge, Crystal
Tink, Poo and Gang
tinkerpoo2000 @ yahoo.com (delete the spaces)

Well, we got the news while back about a kitty, and we for some reason went to sleep on the matter. Well, to tell the truth, we turned the problem over to our cat department. You know we have different departments. We got the fish, which has a few branches. We have the bird department, and brother that got branches We got the cats, that got a few branches.. Then we got the dog, now it gets stickier trying at times to keep up.

We in this case turned it over to Missy the head of the cat department. Now we gets the news, something went wrong. So Poo walked over to see what the problem is. Found Missy down there working up a storm on the books. Seems like we never get a days rest any more. We all got so many poor unwanted coming up the lane, we can claim snowed under.

Well, yes, Crystal of Jan's Funny Farm fame did make it. She - well, we was looking for a she - but it turns out we find Crystal is kind of like that guy Sue. A trick was pulled. You see, Crystal is a boy.

It took some real cat work to find Crystal, but we put the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the case, and we found Crystal after a couple days of looking. Yep, he was down there watching that over-sized catfish.

Well anyways, we got all the news about that Jan's Funny Farm operation. What a deal. Lets see. We got a Rusty, a Cyndi, a Cameron, a Cotton, a Percy, a Merci, a Buddy, and Samaritan. What a mob. no wonder poor Jan has foot trouble, trying to keep up with that gang.

So earth gang, yes we found Crystal, he got his bed, blankets, and other needs all in good order. also a special Angel to look after his needs. What more could a good kitty ask for.

So the movie tonight, yepper -- "Crystal Came Home." We got treats all around for each and every one.

We know we are going to hear more stories about the Funny Farm in the days to come. Wonder if we can get on the mail list, bet we can. We got pull you know.


Thank you again, Bill. We alternated laughing and crying while reading this. Guess Crystal was rather like Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue."

For the record, Funny Farm Readers, Crystal is not defined as a girl's name. Crystal is a beautiful piece of glassware -- neither masculine nor feminine. As handsome as he was, Jan would name him that again if she had it to do over. He was a sweet kitty and he is greatly missed.

Missy You

No, the title is not a misprint. We really are posting about "Missy You." Angel, Missy You and Regular VSquillions are available for adoption at the VSquillions Shelter..Just follow the instructions to adopt one or more for your own blog sidebar. Gracie will gladly help with the adoption procedure.

We have a Regular VSquillion we named Viola, Angel Crystal our ValentineVS and now we have 3 Missy You VSs. One for Crystal, Jenny and Grayce because these are sibling we have lost and miss very much. They were all part of the Funny Farm.

If you too would like to add a VSquillion in memory of a beloved cat, stop by the Offishul CB VSquillions Shelter and speak to shelter keeper Gracie. She has adopted one for her sidebar in memory of her sister Sassy, the founder of CSI. And she has a large litter of Angel VSquillions and Missy You VSquillions needing loving homes available.

By the way, if you haven't met Gracie's new brother Steffano, he's a real Squillion. Before long he might be as famous as Jeter's Squillion laffin an laffin.

Click N Feed

Our friends The Bumpass Hounds have been asking everyone who doesn't have a favorite shelter entered into the Shelter Challenge at the Animal Rescue Site to please vote for a rescue they are very involved with, the one that saved their newest member, a blind pup they named Radar -- Almost Heaven Golden Retriever Rescue & Sanctuary in Capon Bridge, WV.

It's very easy.You're already clicking at the Animal Rescue Site daily to help feed shelter animals, aren't you? Well, then, we hope you will begin as of today! Their link and the links to Feed Hungry Dogs & Feed Hungry Cats are in our sidebar. You can pick up a graphic for your blog at each site. Encourage your friends, relatives and even your enemies to visit each site daily.

At the Animal Rescue Site, as soon as you click the button to feed the shelter animals today --

Look toward the top of the page for the shelter challenge voting button. Click on it.
From the state drop down menu, choose "WV."
At the bottom of the box click "search."
The second shelter listed is AHGRR in Capon Bridge. Click "vote."
To validate your vote, type in whatever type of animal you see: elephant, cow, dog ......

Click on the graphic or click here to go to the Animal Rescue Site.

Now, if you aren't voting for any other shelter/rescue, please vote and help spread the word. The AHGRR can use your vote.

And now that your clicking finger is warmed up, don't forget these fun daily clicks to feed the animals. Each has a daily question but it doesn't matter whether your answer is right or wrong, the animals still "win" -- the food is still donated.

Oh, by the way, our Jan said she feels like a dunce trying to learn how to do things at her age, that it wouldn't be so hard if her brain still had room left for new information. But we figure she still has lots of room to learn and store, her brain just needs a new filing system.

Still, even with her limited knowledge of Photoshop Elements she managed to make us a header for our Zazzle store last night. We really like it. It features Buddy and our Crystal (R.I.P.)when they were both younger. We're so glad Crystal is included since he will always be one of the original Funny Farm. You can see our new header here..

Have a great Sunday!

Sunshine and Olive

Christopher gave us the Sunshine Award Friday and although we received it on February 1st, we are very pleased to receive it again, especially as Christopher left us this message: Thanks for your write-up about the disabled pets book. Since I am disabled myself, you are like a ray of Sunshine!

He is referring to yesterday's post on disabled pets. We titled it "Perfect Pets" because each one is perfect for someone. Christopher was born blind and is obviously a ray of sunshine to his family. How do we know? His nickname is "Mamma's Little Boy."

"

The Sunshine Blog Award

Thank you, Christopher. We won't pass the award on to other blogs again, but we will value it. You can visit him at Christopher's Groove.

Oh, when we stopped by Christopher's, we noticed he is on Catster. This reminded us that we kitties recently joined Catster. And the doggies joined Dogster. We joined so recently we haven't even had a chance to build our pages yet. That's kind of a daunting task, to consider doing 8 separate pages. We wish we had taken the time to join before Crystal died so he could be on there with us. He was part of the Funny Farm since long before we started this journal. It doesn't seem right to leave him out.You can click on any of our photos in the Catster/Dogster widgets in the sidebar to view our basically empty pages.

Have a great weekend. And don't forget to visit Ollie's birthday party this weekend. Click on the graphic at the top of the sidebar or click here.

Romper Room and Angel Crystal

Happy Valentine's Day to all our internet friends!

We were going to pack up all our snow from yesterday and ship it off to Khyra in Pawsylvania and to Phantom & Thunder at the Kansas Ocean, but it melted before we could even find the shovel and plastic trash bags.

We would like to thank Noll's Nip for naming our new, improved dog pen the Romper Room. At the moment, it could be more aptly called the Mud Puddle but it will dry out eventually.

When Jan put us out earlier today (Saturday), she watched us through the window and denies that anyone in the neighborhood was throwing snowballs at us. However, someone was! And it wasn't the wind blowing snow off the trees as Jan claims. Poor Sam was temporarily traumatized, standing head down and tail tucked between his legs to protect himself from the onslaught.

Sam: I was not traumatized! I was trying to see where the barrage was originating from but the snow was hitting me in the face when I looked up.

Jan totally forgot to feed us breakfast till 2:30 this afternoon. She claims it's because it's the first time in 6 1/2 years she hasn't had to run around getting our breakfast and rushing one or more of us out the door to walk. But since she spent all those hours lounging around in her pajamas, we think she is just plain spoiled already. We have got to get her out walking again so her brain keeps working -- at least somewhat. You know how it is, use it or lose it!

We hinted numerous times. For example, we would go out the back door, come right back in and go directly to the front door, where we would stand and stare at our leashes. We did finally get her to go outside with us before she scraped snow off the car and went shopping for some "necessities." She didn't return with anything for us, so we wonder how necessary the items really were. We think our quick trip down the front steps to the curb and back again was just a guilty conscience for starving us halfway to death's door today.

Our Valentine VSquillion has arrived from the Cat Blogosphere Shelter.It's from a special litter of Memorial Angel Virtual Squillions, named in memory of those now at the Bridge. Our VSquillion is adopted in honor of our late brother Crystal, a classic orange tabby.

(s) Buddy, Merci & Sam, Cotton, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron & Rusty

PS -- We would all like to thank those who generously donated to help us take care of Jan! (She'll tell you it's the other way around but this is our blog.)

Breakaway Collars Save Lives

Deetz added our Crystal to his In Loving Memory slideshow. Crystal is in such good company there, including Deetz's two brothers Gizmo and Sharkie.

As many of you are aware, Deetz's brother Sharkie died recently after their collars became tangled during their play. We wanted to post this earlier, but we decided to wait a bit out of respect for Sharkie's family and to heal a little from our own loss four days earlier.

We were surprised when we started reading the comments on Sharkie's post. We had never heard of this happening before but it is evidently more common than we would have thought. Each year thousands of dogs are injured or choked to death due to dog collar accidents. That frightens Jan. It undoubtedly does you too.We dogs love to wrestle and even little Merci wrestles hearty with Sam. It never occurred to Jan that this could be so dangerous. She now wonders whether this is what happened to our 3 rabies tags. (See Ban Bell Tags.) The one Merci is wearing now is round instead of bell-shaped. She is so glad they changed the shape.

We found this video on the dangers of regular collars. This does not show the type of accident that happened to Deetz and Sharkie. In this video, one dog grabs the other by the collar to drag it around in play, demonstrating the potential for a dog to get his jaw caught in a collar and be unable to get loose. (Don't worry, this doesn't happen in the video.)



If the video doesn't play, click here.

Jan was unaware breakaway collars were sold for dogs, although she used to buy them for her cats. She said if she had the funds we would all be wearing a breakaway collar! But we'll have to wait. However, we hope you will do a little research and purchase one for each of your dogs and cats.

The leash attaches to two rings, one on either side of the buckle so the collar is secure while you walk the dog. But when the dog is not on a leash, if pressure is applied, the safety buckle releases. It can be easily snapped back together again. Wearing one of these could save your pet from serious injury or death.

Graphic by KC of the Cat Blogosphere

If you have not visited Deetz's blog yet, perhaps you would like to stop by and leave a comment on Sharkie's page. It would encourage his mom. We don't think she would mind if we share this comment from her, I am at peace now with Sharkie, even though I miss that little guy so bad. So many bloggers became aware of this danger and have made changes or are taking precautions to assure it does not happen to their animals. So, something good came out of his passing! For that I am blessed.

You can read Sharkie's post. His mom does not want any of us to lose a beloved pet. It is too painful.

And Sharkie's memorial post.

(s) Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty & Sam