free offer (beginning on May 20)

[bisontuba]

Beautiful kitties!!!

Mark

[Dutchtown Sousa]

while supplies last, free kittens with any blokepiece picked up in-person (limit three kittens per mouthpiece)

These are THE BEST for keeping rats/mice/etc. out of your sousaphones and tubas.

Are they trained in instrument repair?

[bisontuba]

Beautiful kitties!!!

Mark

Mark, If you drove A-L-L the way down here from Erie, I MIGHT have to offer you two free bags of kitten chow.

[Misterguru]

Ahhh-chooo!
Warn a guy, so I can take an allergy pill before running into little sneeze monsters liked those!

[fairweathertuba]

Cats are jerks! But they do keep the rodent population in check when need be.

[Mojo workin']

Cats are jerks! But they do keep the rodent population in check when need be.

"Who is this jerk?"

Sincerely,
cats

[Mojo workin']

Cats are jerks! But they do keep the rodent population in check when need be.

I'm 55 years old. Ever since I was 5, I've had a cat. The cats have always been treated like family members, and it has always been made clear to the cats what they were allowed to do and what they were not allowed to do (to the point of which pieces of furniture were "not OK" and which even which rooms were "not OK") . They have always been given plenty of attention and affection. I've had a "shy" cat or two, but never a "jerky" cat. The second cat that I ever had (my age: 20 - 40) was astonishingly intelligent and astonishingly loyal.

Here's a copy-and-paste of a story that I told on TubeNet in July of 2005:

FWIW, we've always picked out the "bright" and "engaging" kittens, and end up with smart, people-oriented cats. They actually follow us around the house (and yard) and want to be where we are. Here is one (albeit long) cat story...our first cat - lived 20 years:

- Squirrels were in the attic of our first house because the previous "hippie" owner thought they were "cute".

- I borrowed the neighbor's pellet rifle to try to pop them off as they entered the eves at the end of the house at dusk, but couldn't get off good shots - because of the severe angle and sudden movements that the squirrels would "pop" around the corner.

- My cat came up and started "whatcha doin'?" me when I was sitting there waiting for the squirrels to show up at dusk. When she heard me discharge the pellet rifle, she looked up and saw the pellet bounce off the top of the house and saw the squirrel dart into the attic. She immediately ran around to the other side of the house to check out the squirrels' complete path of entry (involving a tree, etc.).

- The very next day, there was a dead squirrel right where my chair had been on the driveway.

- Each of the next three days after that, there was another dead squirrel in that same spot - where my chair had been.

- I had thought there were five squirrels, and figured that the fifth one had gotten away...until I looked over the fence into the neighbor's backyard. There was that last dead squirrel (the fifth day) on the neighbor's side of the fence - as close as possible to where my chair had been!!! (The cat simply couldn't quite climb the fence with the dead squirrel in her mouth.)

So:

- The cat obviously didn't give a crap about killing any squirrels until she saw that I wanted them dead. At that moment, she accepted the long-term (five-day) job of taking care of the situation, and delivering all of the evidence of her efforts to my workstation...

Sounds to me like cats are more useful than dogs. This has been my experience.

Has anyone ever been bitten to death by a domestic sized cat?

How many times have you stepped in cat s*** on public sidewalks, lawns?

How many nights' sleep have you lost from a barking cat?

[Donn]

story

If the squirrels in question are like the English Grey Squirrel that is a common infestation around here, it's equally remarkable to me that a cat would take one of these critters on. I suppose, in the city, the squirrels get bigger and the cats get flabbier.

I'm pleased to say I haven't seen any squirrels on my little plot here for months, after diligent efforts to get rid of them, but if I thought a cat could do that work without killing the Bewick's wrens, towhees and other ground feeding birds ... I'm sure the neighbors would favor this solution, over the air rifle. My guess would be a Manx. Wonder if some kind of training program could be devised, to get a city cat ready for squirrel hunting?

[tbn.al]

How many times have you stepped in cat s*** on public sidewalks, lawns?

I don't care about the sidewalks or the lawns. That's just my shoes. What really ticks me off is to be working in my flower garden and come up with a handful of fresh, slimy cat $#!+. My next door neighbor has 5................count 'em...............5 cats that he lets roam the neighborhood. The just described situation happens about once a week. When I asked him to keep the cats up he said, " That's not God's plan. Cats need to roam free." My dog never goes out unattended and is not allowed off my property. Why can't he do that with his cats? Because he is to lazy to watch them, that's why. End of rant!

[Donn]

This comes up hereabouts once in a while, when someone starts asserting their right to a cat-free garden by trapping the neighbor's cats and taking them to the Humane Society. The trapper will usually make some effort to notify the cat owner, but some owners won't retrieve the cat because 1) they don't want to spend the $75 or whatever to bail the cat out, and 2) this relieves them of further responsibility (if you could call it that) for the cat.

http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4115636.html

[tbn.al]

It has been my observation that in this world there are 2 opposing types of people, dog vs. cat, liberal vs. conservative, BBb vs. CC, etc., ad infinitum. They are almost never going to agree with each other when the current topic is within the arena of their disagreement. They can be civil, even friendly until the "topic" comes up.

[Donn]

Really it boils down to this - there are two types of people: those who believe there two types of people, and those who don't.

[PMeuph]

No no no, there are three types of people: Those who can count and those who can't....

[tbn.al]

Really it boils down to this - there are two types of people: those who believe there two types of people, and those who don't.

Touche'