Category Archives: Animals

Animals

Kip going into retirement

Whoa, whoa, whoa, now. I am not putting Kip out to pasture, or something like that.

But let’s be real. For years, Kip has not been getting the attention he deserves. For nearly three years, to be exact. And it sucks. But you know what? You guys would think there was something terribly wrong with me if I neglected my children in favor of Kip. You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.

Circumstances at this point are such that I had to make the hard decision to give up Kip. The finances are tight, and with our impending week in a hotel, the timing seemed to point toward Kip no longer living with us. Not to mention the fact that Kip swiped at Chris a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t leave a scratch, but do I really want that to actually happen before its time to give Kip up? Plus, Mike keeps kicking at Kip. As much as we tell him not to do it, Mike and Chris are only going to get more rambunctious. It was time for a calmer home environment for Kip, who is 8 years old.

So, in Kip’s honor, I’ve compiled a top 10 list of Kip posts.

10. Overture to CuteOverload.com — This was a shameless attempt to try to get Kip on CuteOverload.com. Basically its just adorable cat photos.

9. For your consideration — As a kitten, Kip was kind of nuts.

8. Kip + feathers = funny pictures — Eventually, Kip pretty much made this feather toy bald.

7. Recap: Introducing Kip — My first Kip post. He was so cute as a kitten!

6. Impromptu photo shoot with Kip — I was apparently on a quest to get the perfect cute photo of Kip.

5. Bath time — Kip’s grimacing mug anchored my site for a long time. Remember?

4. Kip vs. the Cat Clubhouse — I’d say it was one round before Kip KO’d the club house.

3. Scaredy cat Christmas — Kip HATES workmen.

2. Kip vs. the handle bag — I still don’t know how Kip got his big head into this handle.

1. My cat is a genius — The famous mouth-taping incident that led to a Christmas card and a couple of lolcats.

So, what’s next for Kip? It’s not a shelter, if that’s what you were worried about. Kip is moving to Hollywood, to live with my old coworker Mark, who has been a fan of Kip’s for a while. Mark has a smaller place of course, but Kip won’t have to worry about preschooler feet and toddler hands coming at him all of a sudden at Mark’s.

I have mixed feelings, of course. I am so busy with caring and cleaning up after two young boys and working that trying to maintain Kip has just fallen by the wayside. And at the same time, there’s no avoiding scooping the litter box or trying to sweep up fur and scattered litter. And very honestly, I will be glad not to have to get pissed at Kip when I see paw prints and cat litter strewn across the kitchen table — ew.

At the same time, it’ll be a bummer to not have him sitting on my feet on cold winter nights anymore. And I’ll miss our impromptu boxing matches between the banister bars that made Mike laugh.

Sigh. In a perfect world, we’d be able to keep him. But we surely do not live in a perfect world.

What to do with Kip

Kip just now fell asleep on my foot. He and I are finally friends again, after a long and difficult winter and spring.

The difficulties included my being unable to take play with him like I used to, clean his litter box and the first six months of Michael’s life, which preoccupied me to the point of exhaustion, of course. But, even as it gets easier to take care of Michael (and I’m sure more experienced parents will laugh at that statement), its getting harder to take care of Kip the way I should.

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Trinity battles…a spider

It was big spider though!

Apparently, he walked out and saw this spider and it was so big, he actually thought it was a toy someone left to scare us. So he swatted it with a newspaper and it didn’t move. Then he took this sign from in front of our place and swatted at it — and it moved! He freaked out and yelled my name so loud, I heard it from the office, in the back of our place. He yelled for me to bring a can of Raid and close the door. I brought him the Raid and eased the can out the door (because even though I didn’t know yet what he was freaking out about, I know the manner of bugs that surround our place). After some heavy spraying, I peeked out the door and saw a massive spider with yellow and black markings on its back and said, “whoa!” and immediately closed the door again.

A few minutes later, he asked for a couple of paper towels, which I ran to get — and my camera. If you want to see this poor smushed spider, click on through.

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I’m here!

funny pictures of cats with captions

It’s been busy, with AAJA stuff. I’ll post later, when I have a break. But then….it won’t be a break if I’m blogging! Anyway, I’ll be back. Someday.