JFF on Mousebreath and Squidoo

We would like to thank our old friend Skeezix for typing The Funny Farmers Offer Retail Therapy with his own paws for today's Mousebreath.

We were so nervous at the ribbon cutting ceremony, we didn't even notice who was there.  But we figure he had to be cause he knows all about how we all wanted to participate in the ribbon cutting.  And believe us, it took real teamwork to keep the peace among the owners of the 8 paws involved. 

If you can remember back a few years, Skeezix was the one who nicknamed us as the Funny Farmers. Ah, the independence of having our own name.

We spent the entire afternoon working on a Squidoo lens for our blog.  And it was work!  We seem to have as much trouble figuring out how to do things as Jan does.  Why couldn't we live with a rich human with a young, uncluttered mind?

**Merci** Oh, right, Cotton, then we would never have met Jan.

If you'd like to see what little we accomplished today, you can visit us on Cat & Dog Tales from the Funny Farmers.


We were asked to pass a message on to all our friends who said a prayer for Sparky's family, whether or not you left a comment on their blog. Just as a reminder, earlier this month a comment was left on our blog asking for prayers for Sparky, and the other day there was a post on their blog explaining what happened and that Sparky had passed away, possibly from a blood clot after an injury.

Please extend our sincerely appreciation for all the kindness and caring your friends extended us.
It has helped our hearts
Barking loud furs mommy Marsha

Still in Bora Bora

As you already know, we're in Bora Bora with other blogging furries at Gracie's invitation. If you haven't met Gracie yet or haven't arrived at the party yet, click here. If you are having trouble arranging transportation, let us know. We might be able to help. The party will run through the weekend, at least. And all are welcome - as long as you aren't human.

One or more of us at a time have occasionally been able to attend an event hosted by Sassy, and then Sassy's sister Grace because of the talent and kindness of their human, and occasionally Karl, Momo, or Asta's.  At her advanced age of 456 years (or more), Jan has been trying to learn to make graphics so she can sell designs on merchandise.  Part of learning is to practice, practice, practice, so after we were packed and ready a bit early (for once!), Jan decided to try to help other furries get to Bora Bora. 

Miss Asta's family was out of town and her mom, who has helped us in the past, wouldn't have time to prepare.  So Asta was Jan's first victim ... um, Jan's first subject.  And since Asta is very fashionable, we helped her pack her bags.

The hardest part of helping Derry and Nicki of Fuzzy Tales was telling them apart.  It was hard picking out a photo of each but we got it right.

We started out on Marg's Pets with 3 or 4 kitties and Joe the donkey, but after Jan finished, we asked the names.  Marg replied, Mewmew, Little Bit, Mewmew -- We asked Marg if she has 2 cats with the same name?  Turned out, Marg sent a fluffy, long-hair photo of Mewmew and we picked out a short-hair cat from her blog.  Oops, same cat, different seasons.  Back to the drawing board.

And all the furries are glad Joe decided to go to keep an eye on the cats.  He's been giving donkey rides, but he's had a few mai tais, so ride at your own risk.  :)

And then we just had to help Charlie from Ten Lives & Second Chances.  He wished really hard and we heard him.  (Us, not Jan.  She's oblivious.)  He's having a ball with Fenris, Scylla, Artemesia & Socks.

Gizmo is a kitten, new to blogging, and this trip is an opportunity for him to meet new friends. He's really sweet, so we hope if you haven't already met him, you'll drop by his hut and say hello.  He blogs at A Cat in Gloves Catches No Mice.

KC and the Sherwood Bunch just have to be at Gracie's party!  KC runs the Cat Blogosphere and knows all the kitties, not to mention a number of woofies.  But Mom ML has an infected wound on one hand and they needed help with transportation.  Mom ML has done a lot for us.  It was nice to be able to do something for her for a change.

We were sad when we read Clooney's post yesterday. He waited and waited but he missed the boat and he was going to have to stay home. It broke our hearts our friend was left behind.

Late last night we begged Jan to help him. Half asleep (can't you tell!) she helped us rescue Cloon and his sister Neytiri in Canada.  Jan claims had she actually been awake at the time, she would have done it a bit differently, but at least she did sort of help us.  Cloon's Breaking News post today is funny.  A must read.  :)

However, this morning Jan bawled us out for standing on the roof of the boat when the picture was taken, instead of on the deck. And Sam wasn't wearing his hat to protect him from sunburn. Seriously. 

Hey, Jan, wake up! You put us there!  You forgot Sam's hat.  Oh, never mind.  She hasn't had her coffee yet.

The reason we're posting these photos is to thank Gracie for all the times she's helped us to participate in blogging events, as well as to thank all of the bloggers in this post for allowing us to serve them in a small way.  Believe us when we say Jan got to practice, practice, practice making graphics, so she's happy, and one way or another we all got to Bora Bora, where we're having fun. 

Now, if you'll excuse us, there's a volleyball tournament going on and the winning team gets a free buffet meal.  Sam is hoping his team will win.  He likes to eat.

********************

On a sad note, Amber DaWeenie's brother Tucker lost his battle with lung cancer on Tuesday. He was deeply loved and is greatly missed.  Purrs and wags to his family.

Funny Farmers in Bora Bora

Well, here we are. We've arrived safely in Bora Bora to vacation and have fun with Gracie and other blogging furries. Fortunately, Cotton remembered to make Sam wear a hat. He's pink-skinned with white hair, so he really shouldn't be out in the sun without protection. He could get a bad nose burn without one.

But where are the others?

Oh, there they are. We were just looking in the wrong direction.

Gracie! Hey, Gracie!**Sam whips off his hat and waves it wildly**

Excuse us, we want to go say hello to our hostess. If you want to see who's here and join the party, just go visit Gracie's blog.

Cotton's PSA and Decision

Hey, I'm Cotton. Sorry, but I fell asleep while waiting to use the computer. And it's been a long wait, but Jan finally made a decision.

First though, a Public Service Announcement from Zoolatry. Ann has a very good post on why many blog readers would appreciate it if the the word verification found on many blogs would be disabled and why it can be a hardship for those with a disability. Jan has health problems that are affected by her computer time too and she has been glad to be spending more time away from the computer lately.

We can't speak for other blogs, such as Wordpress, but Blogger has been doing a terrific job of filtering out spam for quite a while now. It has become rare that a spam message gets through and has to be deleted from a post or that a good message ends up in with spam. But bloggers have to do their part. It's easy. Just go to comments in your dashboard (check them occasionally if you choose not to receive email notifications) and check/clear your spam folder.

An easy way to keep up with what is posted on your blog and what is not is to have Blogger send an email for each new comment. If the email asks whether permission to post or delete, that comment has not been posted, so you just delete it from the Blogger spam folder nest time you think of it. But you have to keep your email address current. Just go to -

Dashboard.
Comments.
Scroll down to "Comment Notification Email" and type in your email address.
Click Save Settings.

But before you save your settings, you might want to change "Who Can Comment" to only registered users. We used to allow anonymous comments because we have non-blogging friends, but since many spammers try to post a comment as Anonymous, we finally had to change the setting.

We understand why many of you use word verification but as Ann points out, there is also the problem of time, often having to do two or more verifications, as some are almost impossible to read. A big problem for us is that we have the slowest DSL and way too frequently, there is such a delay, we think our comment went through, but as we are already leaving the site we glimpse word verification appearing. So we either wasted our time making the comment or we have to go back and do it again.

We thank Zoolatry for her Disable for the Disabled graphic and for the post. We don't know that all of you will be able to disable word verification for one reason or another but we hope at least many of you can.

Our last post was to let you know where we were with our blog at the time, but so many left advice on what to do with stolen content, which was not the problem, so we took the post down.

We were trying to warn you about a site using hundreds or thousands of bloggers RSS feed posts to steal your traffic - not steal your post - to boost their own traffic in search engine rankings - and to get visitors to download a program. All bloggers should be doing a periodic Google search of your own blog name. Don't search for this company, as you will only increase their their "popularity," but if you see brokencontrollers.com/yourblog name, you might want to ask them to remove each of your posts and links from their site. Which they will do but you have to notice them and make the request.

Their are many reasons a blogger needs or wants a domain name. But we will never own JFF dot com again. It wasn't because Jan didn't try to pay them for the domain names. They just kept refusing to accept her payment.

As long as we keep posting on JFF, our old dot com will be following us and can be resold. Today it is owned by a foreign company and it's all ads. Tomorrow it could be purchased by a porn site. Jan really wants to end JFF so this can't ever happen, but she just doesn't have the time or energy to start over and try to build up a new blog, a new zazzle store, Twitter, and everything we're signed up with. And Jan has been busy trying to downsize as we might have to move.

Reluctantly and with trepidation, this blog stays open, but we're going to have to find a new heart for it.

Stop right here. And read the last line again. The way it was written, not the way you are expecting it to read. Please.

Word Wednesday Challenge 2011

It's time for the Wordy Wednesday Challenge 2011 and Ann of Zoolatry has done a lovely job of portraying JFF residents with the one word we chose for each of us.

Buddy is much like Jan with a one-track mind and hard to distract when concentrating on something. Buddy was a born clown, always making others laugh at his antics. That's why he was the inspiration for this blog and the star of many posts, especially in his younger days.

Cameron is always well-dressed and ready for any occasion in his immaculate, custom-made tuxedo and debonair manner.

Cotton is the resident tortoiseshell and as everyone knows - or will soon learn if they are adopted by one - a tortie has tortitude. Cotton is no exception. She keeps us in line.

Cyndi is the resident groomer. She keeps her own coat clean and groomed and even helps Jan a little now and then. Jan doesn't mind her hair being washed, except when Cyndi starts pulling out a hair here and there.

Merci is shy until she gets to know you. And then she'll be your forever friend. When Mr. Doug stopped at the dog pen to say hello yesterday, Merci was so excited to see him, she ran laps around the pen.

Does the work nosy really need an explanation? Percy is into everything, turning up in places Jan can't figure out how he even got there, hunting bags of treats and eating them, and even on top of the doors. Nothing is safe from his prying eyes or probing paws.

Sam and Rusty are not included today because they participated in the Word Wednesday Challenge 2009 and we thought making six graphics at one time was enough of a task. Click here to see shy Rusty and magnetic Sam.

Thank you, Zoolatry, for enabling us to participate.To find other participants, scroll down and check out the Mr. Linky list for today on the Cat Blogosphere.

With this post, we're going to take a break from blogging. We don't know for how long, but Jan needs some rest time so we're going to keep her company.

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?

Dona Nobis Pacem

 

Peace requires humans and furries working together in harmony, helping one another. We received help from friends and strangers to make this post. Fellow blogger Gracie kitty allowed us to use the group graphic of us she made for the CB auction, and Mimi, founder of Blogblast for Peace, sent some kind Facebook strangers to offer help. Dawn made the graphic transparent for us so we were able to use it to make our peace globe. Thank you, Gracie (whose mom had surgery on her finger this week) and Dawn.

And we'd like to thank Terica who made this lovely peace globe for us. Evidently she must know us very well.  She wrote, Grant us Peace at Jan's Funny Farm.  Funny, that's what Jan keeps saying.  But we think we're very peaceful for a houseful of furries.  :)

Seriously, Blogblast for Peace is an annual, international event, so whoever you are and wherever you live, we wish you peace.

Jessica Cox and We Have References

Our friend Perry from Noir's Nook passed away yesterday. We are sad for his family.  If you haven't already, please stop by and leave them a comforting word. 


Every human has hardships and down times of one kind or another, so today we'd like our post to uplift and encourage your humans - mom, dad, Food Dude or Food Lady, The Big Thing or whatever your pet name for him or her is.

We received an email that sent us off looking for the "rest of the story." And we found it. A video of an amazing young woman named Jessica Cox. In case you haven't heard of her, we're not going to give away why she's so amazing. Watch the video and see for yourself why she's a motivational speaker.



If the video doesn't play, click here.


We've had some wonderful news. All our financial problems have been resolved with one email.

I am Mrs Stella Ethan, a Christian. I have picked you for an inheritance, Everything is available. Please contact me for more details. Private contact email: stella.ethan@live.co.uk

Regards,
Stella Ethan.

We just have to share our good fortune with our fellow furry bloggesrs. Perhaps if you all send her an email, she can find an inheritance for you too.

And now that we've all had our laugh for the day ...  (Yes, this is an actual email we received.  We don't have enough imagination to make it up.)


Our landlord finally found a plumber willing to take his money, so as you read this, the plumber should be busy crawling under and digging down to find our leak.  Our biggest regret is that no one will let us woofies do the digging . We would gladly accept the landlord's money to do something we love. And we've got references.  We've been practicing in the back yard.

Have a purring and tail wagging day.

Percy and CSN

Cyndi found an ottoman coffee table she has decided she just can't live without.  The one she likes has storage space where we could store a mountain of cat and dog treats and toys.  That would save Jan from having to dole them out, but she's not very agreeable to us taking over our own treat disbursement. She says we'd eat them all at one sitting and get sick.   Buddy and Sam say they'll agree to the ottoman coffee table only if Jan actually buys us a mountain of treats. 

For those of you who haven't heard, now that summer is over, we have a swimming pool.  We know it's here.  Our water consumption says we're filling it; however, we can't locate it.

See, Jan has been tightening our collars.  No, that's not right. She's been tightening her belt - even though we've never seen her wear one.  So when she read our utility bill Friday, she turned kind of red in the face. We use 1000 or less gallons of water per billing cycle but we were billed for 4 thousand. She grabbed a crowbar and a magnifying glass and went outside. We watched from a window as she lifted the heavy cover and wiped the dirt off the meter with her hand.  The bill reading was 072 on 9/20 and unless she was blind it was actually 060 on October 1.

She emailed the city, asking if they would send someone to do a visual reading, but she kept getting the feeling something wasn't right, so she grabbed her reading glasses this time, the crowbar, a magnifying glass and a paper towel to clean the dial better.  The correct reading was 080. She called our landlord.

He came Saturday morning with his dad who is a (retired?) plumber. They checked everywhere for leaks - in the house, under the house, walked the property.  They flushed the toilet, ran water down drains.  Nothing was leaking but the dial was spinning much faster than Friday. And it had gone from 080 to 450 (460 by the time they left). Hopefully, our landlord will be able to get a plumber out here soon to dig up the lawn between the house and the meter because the water bill is climbing. at a rapid rate.  The city manager and the billing department will work with Jan to reduce the bill when the leak is fixed but at this rate it will still be higher than we can pay.  The landlord said he'll help too.  But nothing can be worked out until the leak is fixed and the amount of the damages is known. 

Oh, and our landlord informed Jan he killed two -- yes, 2 black widow spiders in the same hole Jan was sticking her hands yesterday.  She noticed the spider webs but there are so many spider webs around the yard she didn't pay attention. We have concluded she must have a guardian angel. 

Jan locked us dogs in the bedroom so the men could walk in and out without worrying about one of us slipping out the door.  Unfortunately, when the men arrived, Jan went to unlock the back gate and they left the front screen door open behind them.  Jan ran around trying to find all of us cats.  Cotton was sleeping in her new crinkle tunnel and Cameron was on top of the fridge.  Rusty, who likes to run out the back door was missing, but after a good while he showed up at the food bowl and Cyndi was found hiding behind the fridge. Jan called Percy, slipped inside the bedroom to check, crawled around the floor, checked in, on, under ....

Percy was gone.

As soon as they men left, she did another sweep of the house and headed down the street with a jar of cat food.  Not a sign of him anywhere.  She had no idea of which direction he might have gone, so she came home to plan.  She turned on the computer, sat down, turned around and there was Percy strolling across the floor toward her. 

Jan is lying down "resting her eyes" as we type this for Sunday's post.  We don't know why she's so exhausted. She hasn't done any work today.


We did a recent post asking you to vote for Tamar's Cat Hammock in a competition.  Voting was a bit confusing. It ended Friday and winners have been chosen. Tamar's Cat Hammock was not the Readers' Choice Award but she did win the Judges' Choice Award. Congratulations, Tamar! You can read details here.

Livestrong Day

Hi, I'm Percy. The Funny Farmers' blog has gone yellow for the day because today is LiveStrong Day and yellow is the recognized symbol for the fight against cancer. 

We join with our friends Milo and Alfie in dedicating our blog post today to Vic of Zoolatry who is currently battling cancer, and to all who have won their battle, who are currently waging the cancer war, as well as to those who have bravely fought and lost the battle.  We have lost many human and furry friends over the years and have cried many a tear in their memory.

There are many bloggers joining together on this day. Samantha, Clementine and Maverick have put together a slideshow of pet blogging participants.





Support those with cancer. Visit the official LiveStrong site 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.

Innocence, Health and Gracie

The other Funny Farmers asked me to do today's post because I have such an innocent face.

We all want you to know it wasn't us.  Even if we were using the computer after Jan asked us not to.  She was late going  to Ingle's yesterday and there was a storm coming, so she said she wanted us to leave the computer alone until she got back.

But we wanted to play the Daffy Duck Parachute game and we disobeyed.  It was neat, although his first couple of passes left Daffy kind of close to being impaled on the underwear pole.  On the third try, there was a loud bang and everything in the house went dead.  No ac, computer, answering machine (was Buddy ever happy about that -- the answering machine makes him howl!), nothing.  Then there was a second boom, even louder. We were really scared.  Jan was going to be extremely upset about us killing her computer.  A few minutes later we heard her coming up the porch steps and we all hid.  If we were lucky, maybe she wouldn't notice.

She didn't even yell for us, just went for the portable phone - that was dead too - and then spent about 15 or 20 minutes punching numbers into the regular phone but not talking to anyone.  When she finally spoke, she said something about, "I guess you already know a transformer blew near Ingles." She told us later the guy on the other end was with the electric company and he said, "Yes, but we don't know where to send our truck."  So Jan told him.  Seems she was halfway to the store when she heard an explosion behind her.  She turned to see what had happened and there was another explosion, with a big fireball. It was behind the next door neighbor's house, so she came home as fast she could to make sure we were okay.  There was no lightning in the area so Jan thinks it was pecan branches falling on the electric lines. 

A while later she decided she might as well walk to the store before it got dark or started pouring rain.  When she came home, she turned the computer on and it worked.  She hasn't yelled at us or asked what we did to cause that, so please don't tell her it was because we were playing with Daffy Duck after she told us to stay off the computer.  Just back us up.  It wasn't our fault.  We're innocent.


A friend sent us a link to a video on the new CPR for sudden cardiac arrest - continuous chest compressions - by the University of Arizona. We would like to share it with you. Hopefully, you will never need to know this, but if you should ....



If the video doesn't play, click here.

Our sweet friend Gracie's dad lost his mother Saturday.  Her mom and dad are very sad. We wish we could say something to ease their pain but we have no adequate words. Only, we're very sorry for your loss and we love you all.  You can visit Gracie and leave a message on Goodness Gracie.

Thank You, Auntie Deb

We would like to thank Auntie Deb of The Taylor CatSSSSS for her sweet post and for this beautiful graphic for our online yard sale. 

We have some of the nicest friends both online and off and we're grateful for each one of them. We won't embarrass anyone other than Auntie Deb, since we already mentioned her, but you all know who you are.

This graphic is on the Cat Blogosphere too. Thanks for posting it there, KC.We hope you will come by and browse.  We have some antiques, collectables (we like this spelling better because it reminds us of furniture - which we woofies don't chew on any more), etc.  We have not purchased anything to sell on Jan's Funny Farm Fair.  All items are Jan's - some belonged to her mother or her great aunt, perhaps some even older. As Auntie Deb said on her graphic, all money raised will go to helping fill our tummies.  And a couple of us have a really big tummy to fill. 

We didn't know Gail of Queen Bailee's Views as well as some of you did, but we were saddened to learn she recently passed away.  One problem with blogging is that so many blogs end suddenly and no one knows why.  So we are grateful to Gail's friend for letting everyone know of Gail's passing.  If you haven't already done so, please go by and leave a comment on the blog for Gail's daughter Tina. 

Who Swiped Number 8?

We would like to thank our friends at the Animal Shelter Volunteer Life blog.for passing on this pretty Versatile Blogger Award to us.  According to the rules, we have to tell 7 things about ourselves.

1) Cotton - I'm a tortie and the oldest jff resident since we lost Crystal this year.

2) Merci - Before Buddy and Sam came along, I was a cat magnet. They followed us when I walked Jan.

3) Cyndi - I spent several days living in Mr. Doug's engine because his dog was hunting me.

4) Percy - I was originally named Birdie because I sounded more like a bird than a tiny kitten.

5) Cameron - When my siblings were adopted, Merci became my best (and only) friend. So I moved in with her and the funny farmers.

6) Buddy - I was dumped when I was only 3 or 4 weeks old. In mid-December.

7) Rusty - Jan spent their money on adopting me instead of on Thanksgiving dinner for her and her mother.

8) Samaritan -- What do you mean, there's no #8? It's my turn. Who swiped my number 8?

We're going to wait to pass this on. It's kind of late and we're being kicked off the computer now.

Have a purring and tail wagging day.

Red Clay and Hairball Barf

Look what Jan surprised us with for her birthday! Yep, you read that right. She saved her birthday present and spent it on us. She was going to buy groceries with it, but she decided we're special needs furries. Isn't that sweet, she thinks we're special.

What do you mean you don't know what it is? It's a carpet. To cover the area where we furries snooze most often.

You might -- or might not -- remember Jan's trials and errors with covering this unsealed wood floor that is splintering from the humidity. Well, you certainly remember our post on the splinter under her fingernail. Dr. Buddy was quite helpful in removing it.  The splinter, not the fingernail.

Jan tried several types of carpet in here, including indoor/outdoor, but none of them worked. She finally gave up. But when she was putting the new chair together for our next review, she turned it on it's "face" and when she set it upright again, the material was coated with very small splinters. That scared her because we all sprawl on the floor. When her brother was here he turned the chair over to tighten the screws and the same thing happened.

This time Jan went to a carpet place and checked out linoleum and carpet remnants. She checked the weight of both and there was no way she could get either out of the car and carry it, or lay it by herself.  She decided on a thick area rug. It went from tailgate to dashboard and was a struggle to carry up the steps.  Not for us.  We just watched.

Here's Sam testing the new carpet.

Jan says we'll have it tracked with red clay and stained with hairball barf in no time.  We say we'll just make it look homey.  And if we run out of groceries next month, we can always eat the rug. Surely carpet is on the list of approved fiber sources for furries.

Have a purring and tail wagging day.

We Are Missing

We have been without a computer since Thursday and do not know when we will be able to return.  We are supposed to post the winners of the contest tomorrow but we're not sure we're going to be able to.  We will try. If we can't, they will be posted as soon as possible.  Our apologies for any inconvenience this might cause.

We have access to very few email addresses and no blog urls so even if we could visit, we can't find you. 

Have a purring and tail wagging day.

CSN Cat Tree

If you remember, we said there was "Entertainment Coming Soon."  Well, this is Cotton and as the oldest Funny Farmer, I have elected myself spokescat for the Cat Tree fiasco. 

When Jan opened the box and saw all the parts to be assembled, she started to panic. (She's not too handy with the tools, in case you haven't figured that out yet.)  Here is Sam guarding the box in case a Cat Tree burglar breaks in.

With the help of a magnifying glass for her old eyes, the diagram showing where all the parts belonged and a long lunch break, the Cat Tree began to take shape. Of course about the time she started working on level four she figured out she'd missed the two washers on level two and had to start taking it apart and redoing it.(That was really entertaining!)

It is a really nice cat condo. The beige faux fur is so soft and comfortable to lie on.  The posts are sisal rope which is great for sharpening our claws.  We have a hammock, a "cave," and several balconies to choose from.

As Funny Farm matriarch, I have moved my "throne" onto the 3rd level -- or the 4th or even the 2nd, if I so desire -- and spend much of my time looking down on my subjects. I have decimated the hanging ball of yarn already.  It was so convenient to not have to bat toys around the floor.   I have already let Jan know she needs to replace it with another toy for my pleasure. And if any of the other felines wish to play with it, I am willing to share.

Okay, I am exaggerating just a little.  I don't actually have a throne or any subjects, only siblings, but we do love this cat tree.  Yesterday Jan tightened all the bolts as the directions said to do so we will stay safe. She was a bit concerned about the tree tipping over onto the television set or the computer, especially since this old floor is not flat.  Everything in the house leans forward. But the tree is heavy and appears to be sturdy enough to not be affected by our climbing around on it.  As you will notice in the photos below, all the Funny Farmer Felines are quite satisfied with it..

Eventually Jan got the Cat Tree put together. She sprinkled a little catnip on it and Percy was the first to check it out.



And then I joined him.
 

Cameron climbed onto the desk to take a good sniff of the new tree.

Cyndi headed for the top deck.

Buddy and Sam aren't into nip but they came by to check out our new roost too.

Cameron and I watch as Percy curls up in the cave.  Hmmm. A good fit.

Here we have (from bottom) Cameron, Percy, me (Cotton) and Cyndi.  Rusty wasn't sure it was safe to join us because he's dog-size.


But when the tree is empty, Rusty tries level 3 for size. Comfy!
And, oh, yes, we can't forget our largest feline, the Floppy Eared Hound Cat. (That's one of our old scratching posts on the left.)

Ah, such comfort. Just Buddy's size.  Zzzzzzz.


Shhh, Buddy is sleeping, so I'll quietly say good night. Have a purring and tail wagging day.

JFF Writes Reader's Digest

Cotton here with a letter to the editor of Reader's Digest. We recently read something in the magazine which has bothered us.  Today we decided we need to politely voice our concerns on the subject.  We think it's pretty self-explanatory. 

Dear Editor,


We were astounded to read Ask Laskas' response to Rescue Us about barking dogs in the April 2010 issue. She said, "Bark collar. It's safe and humane and follows the same training principle as the popular invisible fence. When the dog barks, he hears a warning beep. If he continues barking, he gets a small 'correction' in the form of an unpleasant jolt. ...I would never recommend something harmful."


Laskas is giving advice to readers, advice at least some of them will take, so we're curious -- is Laskas giving advice from personal experience? Did she use a a bark collar on her four dogs? More importantly, has she tested a bark collar on herself? Is she aware that using "positive punishment" can have negative results?


Dog Injured by Bark Collar at Dallas Kennel.


Are Shock Collars Safe for Dogs?


There can also be problems with using the citronella spray collars Laskas recommended.


As to "the popular invisible fence," yes, the invisible fence is commonly used today, but the gas chamber was the accepted method of killing shelter animals for decades and still is in many areas. "Popularity" or common usage does not make the gas chamber "humane." Nor does it automatically make bark collars and invisible fencing humane. We recently did a post on Jan's Funny Farm blog on this subject, titled "Merci on Invisible Abuse."


Forgive us if this sounds as if we're trying to berate Laskas, but she casually advised readers to use a bark collar and compared it to using an invisible fence, and in our opinion there is nothing casual about either subject. It is our hope she will do some research on this subject for the sake of both her and her readers' dogs.

Sincerely,
The Funny Farmers -
Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty & Sam

Hope you all have a purring and tail wagging day. We're off now to nap. Writing a letter is hard work!

Happy Easter 2010

Happy Easter!

We hope you will all have a special day with family and loved ones. And most of all, we hope that each of you that celebrate Easter will reflect on the spiritual significance of the day. 

We are going to spend some quiet time tomorrow so we're posting this early.

If you aren't already aware, the blogosphere's Zoolatry Human's mother passed away Friday. We send condolences to Ann and her extended family.  Please stop by Zoolatry to leave a comment and for the link to the beautiful memorial page she has made for her mother.

And if you can spare a moment, we hope you will pop over to visit Pet Blogger Support Saturday . The Funny Farmers are the featured blog this week.

Buddy Bunny

 Hi, it's Buddy.  It's my turn to post today and I have some exciting news to share but first ....

Okay, we didn't get a couple of days off.  Yesterday we all started working on the blog list on JFF. Some blogs have moved, some have closed, some are too busy to blog -   We need to update it, our bookmarks and Google Reader subscriptions.  What a mess!

After 5 days of fighting with our blog template, Jan was "brain dead" and never wanted to look at Blogger again. But she decided to redo another blog she has. This one was cooperative and since she had worked the sizing so many times for JFF, that one was finished in about an hour or less.

She also figured out the problem with Blogger in Draft, which she needed to access Blogger's new templates, and now that JFF is set up, we hope our dashboard is back to normal and our auto posts will start auto posting again. Guess we'll find out one day soon. But for today, we're going to post this ourselves. :-)

Thank you for our new look, Jan. We would reward you for your hard work, but since you won't give us an allowance, all we can offer you is some dry kibble in a bowl. Help yourself.

Now, to get to the exciting news.  I entered the Easter contest hosted by Socks, Scylla, Artemesia & Fenris' mom.  And I encourage all of you who can to enter it also. You can read about it and post your entries at Contest Hosted by Alasandra.  This is my entry.

Buddy Bunny

This year I decided to celebrate Easter by serving my fellow furries. You guessed it, I volunteered to help the Easter Bunny deliver baskets to all those furries who want one. Or to all those we can reach before our hoppers wear out. (That means before our paws wear out, in case you are wondering.)


Yes, some of you already know me as Dr. Buddy, the renowned (at least around the Funny Farm and The Meezers') brain surgeon. But very soon I will be Dr. Buddy, Assistant Hound to the Easter Bunny. And the other Funny Farmers will be my assistants. As usual, I will be in charge, and they will most likely be their usual 4 left paws selves. But if they do a good job, they can wear bunny ears next year.

I haven't been given our top secret route yet, but perhaps I'll be assigned to deliver in your area. If so, remember this -- do not laugh at the hopping hound bunny! This will be grounds for immediate consumption of your intended Easter basket by said hopping hound bunny.


Happy Easter!

Buddy Bunny
& Assistants: Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Rusty & Sam