<p>Hey mommusic, (post 9604)
My 16 year old twins volunteer with me at a nursing home in our county. When we got there on Sunday and went to wash our hands, we discovered a note on the bathroom door which said, "The lock don’t work. " I also had to shush them because they were a bit hysterical.</p>
<p>All that talk about the hamsters and the cat brought this story to mind. A few years ago, after my father’s death, we inherited my mother who has Alzheimer’s and her TWO jack russell terriers, Spot (female) and Sport (male). At the time, we had our own little piece of dog heaven: Suzette the Wonderdog, two guinea pigs, Pig and Amy, and Harry the Bunny. The last three lived primarily as herd animals in the back yard, grazing and shedding being their primary hobbies. Suzette the Wonderdog has never been interested in them - in fact, she ignored them entirely.</p>
<p>Well, none of that for Sport and Spot. They lasted three days before we found a hair tornado in our back yard and the containment fence collapsed, the little hutch knocked over and demolished. Spot looked like she’d grown a rabbit coat, Sport had an orange muzzle for a day (Amy was orangish). Anyway, Harry escaped and took up residence under the utility porch and we later discovered Harry was actually Harriet (the babies lived for a brief period in my dryer vent).</p>
<p>Sport never developed the proper respect for my furniture (as is true with some human males as well, though usually not in the same manner),and he now lives two hours away with a nice lady who spoils him terribly (and does not have other pets). Spot is still here but on permanent probation. Suzette might make a nice handbag someday (calling Stone Mountain tomorrow a.m.)! </p>
<p>Opening what’s left of the Christmas wine…</p>
<p>Yemaya, Yep, that’s kind of what we all feared. :)</p>
<p>Congratulations to you!!!</p>
<p>BTW very good, Narcissa!</p>
<p>We don’t do too well with the pets either. The fish the kids win at the purim carnival every year usually last about 3 months. We came home from christmas break and Newton the chinese firebelly frog had died!!</p>
<p>please don’t make me tell you about what happened the weekend we agreed to babysit our friend’s two birds … then went to church… leaving said birds alone in the house – although safely caged – with our two cats. Suffice it to say we arrived home to find the bird cage door wide open – feathers all over the living room. Found the bird shaking under the couch – minus many critical feathers. Bless their hearts – our friends said maybe the birds were just
“molting.” Everyone survived, but I don’t think I’ll ever recover.</p>
<p>Molting, I love it.</p>
<p>Sport ate our neighbor’s bird - PrettyUgly. We paid $42 for a new parakeet, and another $60 for a new bird cage. Sport went to his new abode that very day.</p>
<p>Ivory,</p>
<p>This definitely does not sound like a Tweety and Sylvester moment.</p>
<p>I gotta buy Muffy, Kluge & Mythmom a drink, because I had so much fun reading his post in defense of blonds</p>
<p>Kluge: Actually, from my observations, the most severely underrepresented minority at Ivy League schools is blondes…I think a national investigation is in order! This is clearly discrimination.</p>
<p>muffy: My daughter tried to convert to blonde but ended up canteloupe.</p>
<p>kluge: Ah, well Muffy, there are those who are born blonde, and those who achieve blondeness (blonditude?) through hard work and sacrifice. Canteloupe is a rare but tragic consequence of those who strive and fall short. My condolences to your daughter. (And I’ll skate graciously past the suggestion that she might have fallen prey to the intentional canteloupists who darken our nation’s future.)</p>
<p>mythmom: as the bard says (Twelfth Night): Some are born blonde and some have blondness thrust upon them. (Just to amplify your witty post.)</p>
<p>I tried to get some blond streaks once. My hair fell out (is it possible that I could have been molting too?).</p>
<p>ivoryk–</p>
<p>I have a mental picture of a cat launching itself at the birdcage and hanging from the door area…repeatedly, until the poor door gives up and opens…the birds getting ever more agitated…</p>
<p>Forgive me, but it’s just too funny!</p>
<p>fencersmom - LOL. Animal armageddon in your back yard! It reminds me of those cartoons of dinosaurs grazing happily, not knowing the Ice Age would be upon them any day.</p>
<p>Any killing of animals in my house required me to drown rats with tumors. I have so completely repressed everything I am honestly not sure it ever happened.</p>
<p>A round for everyone with broken fences, recalcitrant autos, and “molting” creatures…</p>
<p>tears of laughter for the last several posts… </p>
<p>I have a friend whose daughter’s hamster could open its own cage and escape.</p>
<p>lol, SBmom. I have mental pictures of watching said hamster open the cage, to the delight of the salivating cats below… some voice, somewhere, screaming, “NO! Don’t do it! You’re making the biggest mistake of your little rodent life!!!”</p>
<p>Our hamster used to make for the space under the kitchen cabinets everytime he escaped. So frustrating!</p>
<p>Dec 31, 2007</p>
<p>DH and I go to local PetSupermaket to spend copious amounts of cash on animal chow and to peruse the “Pets Wanted” columns - just in case!</p>
<p>Anyway, there is this huge “tank” filled with 24 very humorous but horribly odorous ferrets in the Rodents section. I have a straw in my jacket pocket, a remnant from an Arby’s lunch I think. Anyway, the lid to this ferret tank has perforations, about 3/4 inch in diameter - and there are probably 150 of these holes in the top. While DH is paying for the chow, I stick this straw in one of the holes, as a teaser for these inquisitive ferrets. One of the smarter vermin figures out that if s/he stands on the backs of her tank-mates, she can reach the straw with her “hands” and we can play a nice game of tease.</p>
<p>Well, this occurs and we are having fun, this ferret and me. All of a sudden, Lil Miss Ferret bumps her head on the top of the tank, and voila! The lid pops off!!! This hole-laden lid is now off of the top of the tank, leaving a slot about 7 inches wide for these weasels to exit their habitat. AND THEY DO! Before I could scream, at least 10 of the little critters had escaped and were making a beeline to the rat tank, dog kennels, cat cages… they were all over. </p>
<p>Well, when DH saw, out of the corner of his eye, that lid pop, he couldn’t get out of the store fast enough. I ran to the cashier and yelled to her “Ferrets Loose!” and there was complete pandamonium. I have no idea if they ever collected all those ferrets or not. I will probably never go back though.</p>
<p>fencersmother!!! I want the UTube video from the store surveillance!! That is the funniest thing on CC today. </p>
<p>(Thanking you as I pick myself up off the floor and beginning to clean the coffee off the keyboard…)</p>
<p>That’s a true story. I’m glad someone else finds it as funny as I do. My DH is still speechless.</p>
<p>fencersmother, petwhisperer…</p>
<p>thank God you found us in the alley!</p>
<p>OMG, ferretmom, I mean, fencersmother – too funny. What a visual, ferrets streaming out of the tank, and DH heading for the exit!</p>
<p>Actually, there was a loose rat hiding behind the tanks when we were at the pet store buying the hamster. My 14 year old noticed it and started to freak out. I was kind of staring at it, wondering, now is that a <em>pet</em> rat, or the real thing? – then told the guy at the counter that there was a rat out of the cage, and he put it back in. So, guess it was a <em>pet</em> one. </p>
<p>Hammie survived another day. :)</p>
<p>For God’s sakes, don’t let fencersmother near the marmots here in the alley! Luckily this is one of those times I’m on CC in the silence of an empty house—H always rolls his eyes when I laugh out loud on CC!!</p>
<p>I’m also imagining a grainy B&W photo of fencersmother from the security video posted at every entrance and at every cashier’s station. DO-NOT-LET-THIS-WOMAN-INTO-THE-STORE…EVER.</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>Cue theme music from “Jaws.”</p>