Tuesday, November 21, 2006 , late at night

Stupid cat toys

No matter how much money we spend on cat toys, our cats always love “non-toys” the best.  A paper shopping bag, a ball of tin foil, a cardboard box, a cap from a half-gallon of milk—our cats say that those are the best toys ever.  Their absolute favourite toys are the plastic rings that you peel off from around the lids of water, milk, etc. before you remove the cap—the cats carry those little pieces of curly plastic around with them, toss them in the air, roll them back and forth, etc.  Flippy and I had an idea to invent a “kitty grab bag” which we’d sell for 99 cents, and which would just be full of junk/trash that cats love.  Our cats must not be the only ones who feel this way, because this item is a big seller at Petco:

Petmate Looney-Loops Cat Toy (1.5

They’re called Looney-Loops, and they’re just 1.5” rolls of plastic.  They don’t light up or squeak or shake or contain catnip, they just sit there, and cats love them.  I have a feeling all the high-tech toys with lasers and remote controls are designed to appeal to cat owners, and I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for them.  I saw an item today that filled me with joyous images of tormented cats:  the Booda Light Chaser.  This is a small little plastic gadget which slips over a cat’s collar and shoots a targeted beam of light in front of them (like a laser pointer).  When the cat moves, the light moves, and I think it’s pretty brilliant.  I hope Santa Cat will put one in my stocking this year.

Does your cat (or dog) have a favourite cheap toy that you feel compelled to throw out when company comes over?  Is your floor covered in those plastic ties which come on loaves of bread?  Have all your twist ties gone missing?  Please share with the class!


Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/21 at 11:33 PM
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Easily amused

When I’m trying to avoid working, I’m easily amused.  Check out Doggie Mail and click the “Create Your Own” button to have a bit of fun.

Also, for perhaps the worst Flash game ever created, play Lost Litterbox.  Do any of you collect and redeem the “Paw Points” on FreshStep cat litter?  I used to, until I decided I didn’t like the cat litter, but then I was able to buy a bunch of the redemption points on eBay smile You can get some pretty nice stuff with the points—we got a travelling cat carrier (it’s like a rolling suitcase), and have enough points in our account for a second one.  If you play Lost Litterbox, they send you daily PawPoints for your account.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/21 at 01:04 AM
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Monday, November 20, 2006 , terribly early in the morning

Random holiday gift ideas

About once a week I try to clean out my email inbox, but I get so many cool emails that I hate to delete them without sharing them.  So, here are a few of the most interesting online things that you might not be aware of:

For really nice and reasonably priced tie-dyed clothing, visit Dyed in Vermont.  I bought Flippy a t-shirt from this company a couple of years ago and it looks great, has never faded, and it’s just a really beautiful piece of wearable artwork.  The only thing they don’t carry that I’d like to see are zippered hoodies, but otherwise they have a great selection.  How about a tie-dyed lab coat as a gift for your favourite veterinarian?!  You know, I just thought of one other thing the store doesn’t sell - pet clothing.  If you ever read this, Mr. Tie-Dyed, you should make some doggie t-shirts!

Maybe I’m the only person fascinated by this concept, but I wish I had a need for the new My-Cast Mobile Weather service.  I don’t have need for it—I rarely ever leave the house—but it seems nifty.  It might be a good idea for pet owners who have storm-phobic pets, as you could use it to alert you of impending bad weather while you’re stuck at the office.  You’d get notified of a storm and you’d have to leave early to go home.  Oh well.

I think this gift idea is both tacky and touching: name a star after a loved one.  There’s something kind of cheesy about it if it’s used as a grand romantic gesture, yet I feel like it would be a fun thing to do for a pet.  One thing’s for sure, whoever came up with the “star registry” idea in the first place was a marketing genius and I’d like them to send me lots of money.

This ”receive a real letter from Santa” program is supposed to be for kids, but I’m going to have Santa write to Flippy.  Flippy’s been working very hard lately and deserves to find something nice in her stocking, like a dreidel and some latkes.

Last but definitely not least, for the grown-ups, is a link to that Gevalia coffee offer you see all over the place.  I’m linking to it because if you’re into having your coffee delivered, Gevalia actually makes good coffee.  I used to swear by their decaf Stockholm blend, but I finally reached a point where I just couldn’t drink as much coffee as was being delivered, and I cancelled my “subscription”.  It really is good coffee though, and there are tons of decaf and whole bean options, so it may interest someone.  I was just looking at it myself and I notice that don’t have anything called “Stockholm blend” anymore, but I’d imagine that’s now their “Signature Blend”.  Maybe we should order some… hmm…

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/20 at 03:02 AM
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The prescription dog

This news headline caught my eye today:  Oregon man’s prescription dog found.  It’s a story with a happy ending about a man who suffers from depression and who lost his “anti-depressant canine”.  I love the idea of companion dogs (or cats) being assigned to mental health patients, just like I’m a fan of programs like Pups on Parole.  The animals get love and attention, and the humans get company, and in some cases, lessons in empathy and compassion.

I’m keeping busy getting prepped for Thanksgiving.  For one thing, my email box is full of “Thanksgiving wishes” from all sorts of companies—I particularly enjoy the one from a sushi restaurant, and it caused Flippy and I to think of new types of holiday sushi rolls like turkey and cranberry, stuffing and sweet potato, etc.  I also received one of those “pre-fab” trivia newsletters from a mortgage company, and one of the tidbits of info in it is, “With so many colorful character balloons floating above New York’s streets in Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade, it’s no surprise that the well known department store chain is the second-largest consumer of helium in the world, topped only by the U.S. government.” So there you go… you can now imagine GWB and pals sitting around the Oval Office, huffing helium and talking like Minnie Mouse.

I’ve got a 17 lb. turkey in the fridge thawing, and I may end up cooking it for family dinner on Thursday, although I’m not sure yet.  Someone has to cook it, so either I cook it and take it to dinner, or we deliver it to the cook’s house on Wednesday.  I don’t mind cooking, but with so many pets, I always worry that my food creations will end up with pet hair in them.  I don’t think it’s ever happened, but I’d feel horrible if someone took a bite of stuffing and found a cat whisker.  I need to design some sort of vacuum-chamber for the kitchen, so I can cook while all displaced crumbs and bits of things get sucked out of the air.  Someone please invent that for me before Thursday morning.

On the stray cat front, I’ve got two regulars eating from my front porch.  One of them seems to come and go, so I think it might live somewhere in the neighbourhood.  The other does seem to be a stray and has made itself a small nest between the rosemary and lavendar bushes.  I’ve named him Perry Como, because the continuing “Paul Anka” joke on “Gilmore Girls” is getting on my nerves, and this helps distract me.  Speaking of Perry Como, go visit Flippy’s blog and read about NaBloCoMo.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/20 at 12:40 AM
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Sunday, November 19, 2006 , late afternoon

Grey Cup 2006

I’m somewhat peeved today that I’m forced to watch the 2006 Grey Cup championship game on pay-per-view.  It’s not even TV ppv, either, it’s on my computer, so I’ve been stuck here in my chair, glued to my monitor.  I’m often glued to my monitor, but it’s usually because I’m working, so now I feel mildly guilty at not working as well as peeved about having to pay!  Last year the game was broadcast on our local cable company’s peculiar “INHD” station (it broadcasts a mishmash of shows, as long as they’re in HD), but this year that station is showing a “Gram Parsons’ Tribute” show instead.  I scrolled through all 300+ digital cable channels on our TV, and I found billiards, horse racing, poker, college hockey, and even sailing, but not one snippet of Canadian football.  It makes me want to switch to satellite, it does.

Anyway, the game has been fun to watch.  We see so much American football that I really appreciate the wide-open, spacious feel of the Canadian game.  It seems a lot faster-paced than the NFL.  It’s nice to get a peek at chilly ol’ Winnipeg, too (waving at Coll)!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/19 at 05:49 PM
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Saturday, November 18, 2006 , the wee hours

Phoenix goes to the eye doctor (part twelve or something like that)

Phoenix had her six-month post-surgical follow-up appointment with the eye doctor today, and she passed with flying colours.  She can’t see all of the flying colours, because she’s blind in one eye, but she thinks they’re pretty, just the same.  The vet believes that her vision and comfort are as good as they can possibly be expected to get, and we notice that Phoenix’s eyes are a lot more healthy-looking since the surgery (less discharge, less redness, etc.).  The vet then went on to commend us for being the rare pet owners who actually follow-through on treatment protocols, because when he treats our pets, he can find out if his treatment plans work (they do).  With most other people, they don’t follow instructions so it’s tough to know if a procedure failed, if a medication isn’t working, or if a problem is being caused by owner noncompliance.  Noncompliance must be something that just the rich clients do, because it costs us about $200 every time we step into this vet’s waiting room, so I’m not going to waste that money by not following instructions.

Although this vet is an excellent specialist, his office is sort of rundown and in an older part of town.  It’s located off a busy street with lots of older office buildings, some car dealerships, stuff like that.  Today I saw two stray cats wandering around in the empty lot next to the vet’s office, and one of them must have been just a few months old because it was small.  The other was older but scrawny.  We also saw a pigeon, just sitting on the sidewalk looking at us as we approached.  I reached down to pick the pigeon up (to make sure it could fly), and it just allowed me to hold it.  It could move its feet and head, the wings were fine, and it seemed in perfect physical condition but it wasn’t flying, it was just doing a bit of walking.  I put the bird in a garden area where it would be safe from the cats while it regained its wings—I thought perhaps it had hit its head or something.

When we were finished with our appointment and went outside, the pigeon had moved to another part of the shrubbery, and the largest of the two cats was hovering over it.  I again reached down to move the bird, and while it could resist me a bit, it just wasn’t “right”.  As I held it, its head started to roll and jerk, and I think it was having a seizure.  I took it back inside to the vet’s office, where the office manager took it from me and said she’d put it in a cage.  I told her that the bird probably just needed to be put out of its misery, and said that I wondered if it had been poisoned.  It showed no signs of physical trauma at all, and its neurological condition had visibly deteriorated over the half hour or so that we’d observed it.  I suggested that the bird be euthanized only because I didn’t want the office staff feeling they had to tell me “nice stories” about the pigeon going to a pigeon retirement home or something… I knew it probaby wasn’t going to live, and didn’t like to see it in such bad shape.

It was a good day, but it was surrounded by melancholy.  I was upset by the stray cats, even though I know the vet clinic puts out food to feed them.  They can’t possibly live very long in such a busy neighbourhood.  And, I was upset by the pigeon - a really beautiful, handsome, large bird, who had probably been poisoned by some “pest control” company.  I think pigeons mate for life, so I hope this one doesn’t have a mate waiting up for it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/18 at 02:04 AM
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Friday, November 17, 2006 , late at night

Mmm, it’s peppermint mocha season!

Attention, all Kmart shoppers (and the rest of you): Peppermint Mocha season at Starbucks is now officially declared OPEN!  Woo hoo!  (yeah, it’s still 75 degrees outside… but the snowflakes on the cup make it seem at least 10 degrees cooler).

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/17 at 11:06 PM
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Thursday, November 16, 2006 , terribly early in the morning

Big city living

My parents live in Belleville, Ontario.  It’s a city of about 50,000 people, with a metropolitan area population of about 90,000.  My mother likes to clip out interesting articles from the city newspaper to send to me, and she recently sent one about an outdoor concert she and my father had attended this past summer.  I read the article, and when I was done, I flipped the clipping over.  On the other side was just a portion of the “police blotter” column, which I’d like to reproduce for you:


  • “Someone threw a can of yellow pain that splattered on the driveway of a Dufferin Avenue residence.  The back of a pickup truck in the driveway got splattered as well.”
  • “A rock was thrown at a vehicle parked on Dundas Street West, resulting in a small chip in the windshield.”
  • “A pair of New Balance track shoes and the orthotics inside were stolen from the front step of a Cedar Street residence over the weekend.

Isn’t that just about the most adorable thing you’ve ever read?  Here, we have to add extra pages to the newspaper to fit all the murders in, but there, they devote space to someone’s missing shoes.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that a place like that really exists.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/16 at 03:03 AM
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Kashi TLC cookies

I wanted to write about how much I love, love, love Kashi’s new TLC (Tasty Little Cookies) Oatmeal Dark Chocolate cookies.  I can still do that, but I can’t give you a link to them, because they aren’t even listed on the Kashi website.  How odd.  We bought them at Target about a week ago, so they’re out there, somewhere, but perhaps they haven’t been distributed nationally yet.  In any case, I think they’re fabulous.  They taste “good for you” because they’re full of chewy grainy bits, but that also helps them taste homemade.  They aren’t overly sweet but do contain real chocolate and not that fake carob stuff, and they’re a large, hefty cookie.  Flippy and I were eating them as “breakfast on the run” for a couple of days, and I think we could make a fair argument that it was a healthy decision.  I like them more than Flippy does, but we have different taste in cookies—for example, she loves the “soft-batch” type of cookie, and I think they taste nasty.  So, these Kashi cookies might also be something you either love or you leave.

In the ingredient department, they’re full of good things.  Each cookie contains seven whole grains (oats, rye, barley, sesame seeds, and a few others) and three grams of fiber.  They only have 130 calories each (which is pretty good considering that they’re large), but they contain a fair amount of fat (5g per cookie).  There’s no trans fat, which is good for your heart, but will still go straight to your thighs.

If these sound like your sort of thing, do give them a try if you can find them.  I wanted to to try the oatmeal raisin flavour, but we can’t find them at the grocery store and we haven’t been back to Target.  Target is an evil place where they force you to spend at least $100 before they let you leave, so we can’t go there very often.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/16 at 02:22 AM
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006 , late afternoon

Leigh-Ann and Nancy’s big gay anniversary

Today is our anniversary—“Flippy” and I have been together for nine years.  Because we can’t get married, we just figure our anniversary as being the day of our first date—we’ve been pretty much inseparable since that day.  We’re going to go out for an “exotic” dinner at Mimi’s Cafe in about an hour or so, which shows an incredible amount of effort on our part because it requires leaving the house.  If we didn’t practically share personalities, we’d probably drive someone else crazy with our easy-going, hermit-like habits.  So, Happy Anniversary to us—we didn’t buy each other gifts or presents, but tonight I’ll offer to clean up the dog poop in the yard all by myself to show my love smile

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/15 at 05:11 PM
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