Roombas

see more Funny Graphs

And here's a funny recent video of kitty vs. roomba

Sea lions

My parents are currently touring the Northwest U.S. as my dad is out there on sales jobs business, and they are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. My mom has been sending us pictures of the sights and scenes they've been enjoying, and I thought I'd share this picture. It makes me smile. :-)

She wrote:

"The day after I got here we walked out behind the hotel and saw some lazy sea lions lolling in the sun. Every once in awhile one of them would roll over and bark, but mostly they just laid there and slept. This picture shows only a fraction of the sea lions that were in this harbor."

She told me on the phone this morning that they would roll over, make their sea-liony noises ("ark, ark, ark") and then roll back to their lazy position. Hehe

Morning wake-up calls: 3:30am

Yep they're at it again!

Lewis has gone back to his habit of waking us up starting at 3:30am for his breakfast. He gets fed at 5am, so his internal clock is quite off. It's getting really frustrating, especially when sleep is so precious to me these days!

I am considering doing something that would really make me sad, but it might be our only option: closing our bedroom door and not letting the kitties sleep with us. I actually love it when they sleep with us. I love their cute sleeping bodies curled up at my feet. I do NOT love being woken up every 5-10 minutes from 3:30am until 5:00am.

Currently the bedroom door is broken and does not close, so we'd have to get that fixed first. But, it might be something we have to do.

I have been wrestling with the feeding thing for quite a while. I switched their food when we moved to this current location, because I found a local pet food store. They seemed to like it at first, but then they started leaving about half in their bowls. Meanwhile, they seem starving between mealtimes. Their bodies feel solid, so I'm not worried about them starving to death; I just don't want to be bugged if they're not going to eat the food I give them! (How cat-like!)

So I switched to a different "flavor", same brand. They don't seem to like it any better and I personally dislike the smell of the new flavor, so I'm going back.

After talking to the guy at the pet food store, I decided to start supplementing wet food in the evenings. We decided to give them 1/4 can of wet food and about half the dry food that we've been feeding them. They say that picky cats usually love wet food, and it's a great way to make sure they are getting the moisture they need. Apparently, cats aren't as apt to drink water as dogs, so often cats who are on all-kibble diets have trouble with dehydration. So we'll see if this mixture of wet and dry does the trick. So far, they seem to be eating everything so that's good!

We also got some samples of another brand of dry food, in case that's the problem. I gave them both one evening to see which they ate, but they ate both types the same amount. :-) So I don't know if I'll switch or not. I hate switching their food all the time, but I'd really love to have them stop bugging me! And of course I get tired of picking up leftover kibble from the ground because when they're done they like to play with it. :-) We still have several more samples, so I think I'll try my half/half experiment again and see what they do.

My husband wonders if the cats like variety. They say that cats don't like variety and prefer that their owners NOT change the brand of cat food, but who knows. Maybe my cats are secretly taking Nuphedra without me knowing it. ;-)

Cat goes on a crime spree

Here's an entertaining video of Jack, the clothes-stealing cat, from Idaho:

The Enemy Within - Hedgehogs

A little video for your enjoyment!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Enemy Within - Hedgehogs
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Spot the differences

Were you getting tired of me talking about fish? :-)

I can't believe I've never written about bettas before! Well there you have it, most of my knowledge... I'm sure there's more but my brain is tired and the weekend is almost over which means my free time to write paragraphs and paragraphs on betta fish will be more limited. :-)

On to other favorite topics... kitties! I am still in the process of getting 3 months worth of pictures off my camera and uploading them. (Why does it always seem to take so long to get around to transferring pictures from the camera to computer??) I uploaded two tonight that I thought you'd enjoy. They are of Ebony, surprisingly, who hates to me photographed.

Now, at first glance, you might think this is the same picture. However, if you look very closely you'll see the main difference between the two: (click on the pictures for bigger versions)



Do you see it?

Ebony was sitting on my dresser staring at me, which I thought was really cute. (I also thought it particularly cute because I didn't have my glasses on at the time and so all I could see was her silhouette. Thank goodness my camera has an automatic focus; it's very weird to take pictures without being able to see clearly yourself! I recommend always having your corrective eyewear on hand, especially if you are partaking in European or Argentina travel. Yeah, it would be bad if you couldn't see on those instances.)

I took several pictures, as I always do. After snapping the first one, Ebony turned her head, so I lowered the camera to see if she would resume her position of staring right at me. She then, with her paw, knocked down the deodorant bottle that was right in front of her, and then returned to the alert stare-her-down pose that she had been doing before. Thank you, Ebony - I do like it better with the deodorant on its side, a little more inconspicuous. She's such a lady.

Ah, cats. You gotta love them. :-)

Getting a fish, part 2

So, congratulations! You've bought all your supplies and you're ready to set up your tank. Here is what you need to do next.

Rinse everything
It's a good idea to rinse everything, especially if it's been sitting for a while or was just bought from a store. This includes the rocks, the plants, the tank itself, and the pump (you only need to rinse the part that goes in the water). Do not use bleach, as it is bad for fish. If you need to sterilize it, put it in the hot sun for a natural bleach.

Be careful of the water
You don't need special water, but you do need to make sure the water you're using is clean. Sometimes, I trusted the tap water, but other places I didn't. Sometimes I found it easier just to buy the gallon containers of "spring water" from the store - especially if the sink I was using was too short to stick my tank under. It's okay to use tap water but you have to treat it before you put the fish in (the same goes for spring water). I used a brand called AquaSafe, which is in a bright yellow bottle. You can find it and other comparable products at a pet store. You don't need a lot - follow the directions on the bottle, and fishy should be happy.

Preventing ich
Ich (also spelled ick) is a parasite that is common in aquarium fish. It looks like white, cloudy splotches on your fish, and will kill your betta if not treated. (microdermabrasion won't help this fishy!) The best way to prevent it is to put non-iodized salt (found at grocery stores) in your aquarium whenever you do a water change. I haven't been able to find a specific amount, but I think about a teaspoon for a two gallon tank is good. The salt will kill the ich without hurting the betta. If your fish does get ich, you can buy medicine at pet stores. I know Zeke (the first one) got tail rot one time and I bought these drops at Petsmart that made him all better and he lived for 2 more years. (I had him for a really long time!) The drops weren't too expensive either.

Put it all together
Once you've set up your aquarium, added your rocks, plants, water, water conditioner, and salt, you're almost done! Turn on the filter (or air stone, which is what I had) and let it run for a bit - particularly if it's the first time you've used it. It might be helpful to buy an aquarium thermometer to help you monitor the temperature - you'll want to make sure it stays between 75F to 82F (bettas are tropical fish). Don't put a heater in a tank less than 5 gallons, so be sure to keep your tank in a place that is warm enough for the water to maintain that temperature. (I never had any problems with this).

I let my aquarium run for about 24 hours when I first got Zeke. I wanted to make sure the salt and water conditioner got a chance to filter all through the water, and that the water was properly aerated and at the right temperature. The first time I added Zeke to my tank, I did it cautiously as the internet sites told me - adding a little bit of the water from the tank to his temporary bowl, a bit at a time, until all the old water was gone. Every time after that I just plopped him in. :-)

For subsequent water changes, I always let the aquarium run for a few hours before putting Zeke back in.

This is all I'm going to write for now on the subject, but I'm sure I'll revisit betta fish in the future. :-) Enjoy your new fishy!