Keep Your Fingers Away

"Yeeouch!" Sweetie was yelling and plunged his hand under running water, and continued to yell.

What happened?

"That little fart bit me!" he yelled, pointing to Ashfur. It seems he was trying to give her a tasty tidbit, and she showed him that you cannot hand feed her. I could have told him that, but at least this way he will remember.

Seriously, the four youngest kittens, Ashfur (the runt), Shockolate, Gladys Knight, and Ferncloud, and the next oldest set, Nightpelt and Ming, have become little land sharks for real. I often joke that kittens are that when they are screaming for the bottle every 10 minutes as babies. These have shown me what kind of little sharks they really can become.

The want food. They don't just want their kitten food, which has to have fortiflora and KMR powder sprinkled on it. They want that and treats. They want meat treats. All Day Long. They hang around the kitchen begging, and if you drop something, they are on it, hissing, growling, running away with it to keep it from the others, trying to steal from each other. No matter how much you put down for everyone, they all act like they are starving to death and on a feeding frenzy.

About a week ago, i had boiled off some smoked turkey necks for the stock. I then deboned the meat and kept it to give the little guys. That is what started it, they just went nuts. Now it is any form of meat, or anything else that gets dropped. Do not try to give it to them by hand if you do want to give them something. Make sure you just drop it on the floor, and lead them to it. Otherwise you will end up with your hand under the running water, yelling for the alcohol and a band aid, as Sweetie did.

In fact, just the other day i was gathering my kitchen towels and dishrags to wash, and one of those smelled so good that Shockolate grabbed it out of the basket, and was running away with it, growling. I had to chase him across the library to get it back. When i got back to the basket, Ashfur and Gladys were taking turns swiping at each other and chewing the cheesecloth i had used to strain meat stock. I had to throw that away instead of being able to wash it.

So, no more treats. They have to be broken of this habit, so they can be adopted. No one would want a kitten that is so food crazy it can't take a treat from your hand without sinking in a fang.


Today is:

Balloon Ascension Day

Choreographer's Day

Clean Off Your Desk Day

Feast of All Fairies -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of the Most Holy Black Nazarene -- Quiapo district, Manila, Philippines

Festival of the Agonalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Holy Family Day -- Christian

Jackson Day -- Louisiana (104th Annual Jackson Day Race in New Orleans, oldest street race in the South and 5th oldest in the nation.)

Martyr's Day -- Panama

National Apricot Day

National Static Electricity Day

Positively Penguins Day

Republic Day -- Republika Srpska

St. Adrain of Canterbury's Day

Stepfather's Day


Anniversaries Today:

Connecticut becomes the 5th US State, 1788


Birthdays Today:

Dave Matthews, 1967
Mark Martin, 1959
Crystal Gayle, 1951
Jimmy Page, 1944
Joan Baez, 1941
Susannah York, 1941
Bob Denver, 1935
Les Paul, 1915
Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Hovick), 1914
Richard Nixon, 1913
Chic Young, 1901
Gracie Fields, 1898


Today in History:

Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople, 475
Seven hundred Jews, believed to be causing the Black Death, are burned in their homes in Basel, Switzerland, 1349
The first sighting of manatees by a European (Columbus), 1493
Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in London, 1768
The first hot-air balloon flight in the US lifts off in Philadelphia, 1793
Income Tax is introduced in the UK (to fund the war against Napoleon), 1799
Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral, 1806
Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery, 1816
The Daguerrotype photo process is announced at French Academy of Science, 1839
Thomas Henderson makes the first measure of stellar parallax, of Alpha Centauri, 1839
The Astor Library opens in NYC, 1854
The first hostilities of the Civil War, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, 1861
The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow, 1880
New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts, 1894
Alfred Tennyson's son, Hallam, the Second Baron Tennyson, becomes the second Governor General of Australia, 1903
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., the first historically black intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity to be officially recognized at Howard University is founded, 1914
The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated, 1916
Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogiro (helicopter) flight, Spain, 1923
A fire at the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Quebec, Montreal, kills 78 children, 1927
Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians, 1964
Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh, 2005
Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel group sign a peace agreement in Naivasha, Kenya, 2005