April Show Off Thread 2025 - Everything old is NEW again!

[Stezza]

wow... that's expensive.. I pay about $60US a month for unlimited.

have you tried using a mesh system?

I have that here and it covers the house and the backyard. 

[Llola Lane]

wow... that's expensive.. I pay about $60US a month for unlimited.

have you tried using a mesh system?

I have that here and it covers the house and the backyard. 

Yeah.. I know.. that's why I'm complaining... lol.  It does include our internet and cable... Not sure what a 'mesh system' is.  We tried looking into dish but we live in the country with a lot of trees around us so the dish wouldn't pick up a signal.  It's ok.. We love Spectrum.  I'm sure this is an US problem... I'm just not smart enough to figure out WHAT .. IT... is :(  (sighs)  I'll keep trying to figure it out... But everyone giving suggestions sure does help. :)  thanks oodles one and all.. hugzzzzzzzzz

[Agent0013]

Hello Folks! I'm Back! Finally! (I hope!) Sorry for the long absence, Life and the internet were throwing me all over the place, both physically and emotionally!

I don't know if you know about the loss I and my brother suffered. In one month after the election results, four of our cats were killed by people throwing temper tantrums over those results. I lost my Cookie Baby when someone gave her antifreeze to drink! I know that's what happened, because the landlady, who hates cats told me about it, but did not tell me who did it! Sooner or later the truth will surface, and I will bring charges against the cat killers!
 
I and my brother are still morning the losses! We now only have McCartney of the cats we did have. He has a knack for knowing the kind of person someone is, and he avoids the bad people instinctively.

Now I do have some really good and amazing news concerning cats. McCartney has chosen a female cat as his "Wife" and did not invite us to the wedding! LOL

She only allowed him to mate with her, and now has a litter that is about a month old; one male born 11:33 PM, March 31, 2025, Two females, the first born at 12:32 AM, April 1, 2025, and the second born at 2:22 AM, April 1, 2025. their names respectively are: 
Brit (M) - Their firstborn
Heidi (F) - Their second born
Ellora (F) - Their third born.

We call the kittens our April Fools Day Miracles!

Ellora was the runt of the litter, but she is the most active of them all; opened her eyes first, began recognizing voices of their Mother (Peaches), Myself, and My Brother. She is the first to climb out of the nest we made for them, and gets around pretty well!

Peaches chose me to be her "Nursemaid" Wanting me to stay with her as she gave birth! She is the most talkative cat I've ever met, and while she supposedly belongs to our next door neighbor, she chooses to hang with us almost exclusively. I think the neighbor is going to tell me to keep her as my own cat, because she loves me a lot already.

Yesterday, Ellora climbed out of the nest again. Her mother Peaches was on a small fold up table next to me. Ellora was meowing, wanting her mother! Then Peaches did something amazing! She got close to my face, looked me in the eyes and said in a cooing voice "Ellora!" clearly as you or I would say it!. I turned to look, and there was Ellora on the floor making her way to me. I put my hand on the floor, palm up and she crawled into it! I picked her up and had a small petting session with her as Peaches watched closely. My brother and I had already chosen Ellora as the one we wish to keep, and Peaches is showing her approval! What a smart cat!

Peaches is helping me through my grief period over Cookie Baby, who would have been 15 on the tenth of April, 2025! I did not get to celebrate that birthday with her as I had planned, but the blessed event of the birth of 3 kittens, plus the choice Peaches has made to be a member of my family is worthy of celebrating in honor of Cookie Baby! I will never forget the good times I had with her. But now there is another wonderful and smart cat that wants to be with me, and love me as her Human! She has of course won my heart, as well!

[Llola Lane]

<--waaaaaves to Agent... Glad to see you around again.  We too have a mama (Donna) that we are fostering.  She had one baby (Nala) about 4 weeks ago.  She's just starting to run around the big room.  :)  Donna will stay with us for about 3 more weeks til Nala is done feeding and then brought back to our local Animal shelter to get fixed and find her FURever home.  Nala will be with us at least til she's 2pounds and 2months.  We like to keep the babies a little longer... then she too will go back to the APL.  Then we will start over with another batch.  Kitten season has begun at our shelter!!!
Here's their picture. 

[Agent0013]

Gosh! I love cats so much! I don't like taking a kittens reproductive system away from it before it can at least mate and reproduce once. Cats are among the best controllers of mouse and rat populations.

I don't know if you know a lot about what happened in Europe in medieval times, but here goes:

This is about the 2 Popes of the Roman Catholic Church and the way they caused two pandemics in a row, that decimated the population of Europe to extremely low numbers!

The Pope declared that all cats were witches familiars and had the authorities take all of the cats they could find and put them to death. All told the cat population was reduce to about 10% of their previous numbers. The first time it was reduced by about 60%, leaving only about 40% across Europe and Western Asia. Because of that the rat and mouse populations exploded. The Church did not know it but those rodents were carriers of a deadly plague; namely the Bubonic Plague (aka the Black Plague), but on their own they could not transmit it to humans. It was the fleas that could though, by getting on the rodents, biting them, and then getting on humans and biting them! About half the human population were infected and died, if I recall this correctly! Bodies piled up all over Europe because of it! It took a few decades for the cat population to recover.

Then if I am right, it was the very next Pope that did the same thing again, trying to finish what his predecessor had started. This time the population of cats was almost wiped out completely. Again the rat and mouse populations exploded, and again they carried a deadly plague called the Red Death, and again it was transmitted to humans via fleas! In many place of Europe there were infected men driving large wagons and ringing a bell as they went, calling out "Throw out the dead!  Throw out the dead!" Those wagon drivers themselves would die eventually. Europe and Western Asia populations were reduced to around 30% to 36%. It is not known exactly how high the number of deaths was, because record keeping had suffered greatly in the first of these pandemics! What was really horrible about it was that neither of the Popes really knew what they had done. They not only caused millions of deaths, but they also maligned the reputations of cats around the world! To this day, there are superstitious people that think cats are inherently evil.

Add to that the Bob Barker campaign of "Remember to have your pets Spayed or Neutered!" It was supposedly to control the populations of domestic animals, many that took to living in our cities with no one to care for them; yet they thrived in that lifestyle, both cats and dogs, and they still do. But imagine if that campaign was too successful! The very same thing that happened twice in Europe would likely happen here as well, but caused by a different purpose. Animals that are spayed or neutered cannot have offspring, and in cities of even larger areas where this is a law, it is known that the rat and mouse populations are out of control. All it would take is for the rodent population to be carrying a deadly disease in an area where it is a law to have your pets spayed or neutered. If we have no developed treatment or cure for it, at least a few thousand people would become victims, of either debilitating effects, or even death. We should all take a lesson from what happened twice in Europe! I'm not saying not to spay or neuter your pets, just to at least allow them to reproduce one or two times! Cats are well known for their great skills at controlling rodent populations, but if their numbers are reduced too much, we run the risk of having a new pandemic on our hands! Cats are needed for that more than dogs, I can tell you. McCartney, our Grey Tabby male cat is very good at catching and consuming those pests. We have seen him catch and consume nine mice in just two hours, and the rest of that day he caught three large rats, one bird, and five more mice, for a total of 18 in just that one day! Whenever he catches something he brings it to us to see, and when we praise him for it, he then and only then consumes it! When I say he is a remarkable cat, I really mean it.

So, "What's Up Doc!" lol

[Llola Lane]

Agent is starting a May challenge thread... keep an eye out for it soon.  Be well everyone... Hugzzzzzzzz