A Moment of Weakness

You will all be happy to hear that in a moment of weakness I bought a new digital camera last night while watching one of the shopping channels.  It's twice as good as my old one which means you will be seeing more and better quality pictures here on my blog.  I'm very excited about it and can hardly wait for it to get here.  The kitties will be blinded from all the flashes going off in their little furry faces.  Oh, it also has a red eye remover built in.  No more red eyed devil looking precious children.

Today was flea treatment day.  All my fur kids got treated with their Frontline Plus doses this afternoon.  The only one that is almost impossible to dose is Tanner.  Today I got lucky and he ran into a cardboard box I had on the floor for their enjoyment.  I threw a large terry towel over him and pulled him out of the box.  I put the treatment on his neck, he peed on the towel, the box, the rug and that was it.  Well you have to understand by comparison this was easy.  We use to have to chase him all over the house and when we got too close he peed.  That meant that there would be several spots of urine all over the house.  We would take kleenex tissues and mark the spots like penalty flags at a football game as we took off after him each time.   So one large spot on the rug, towel and box....a piece of cake! That was just a little green machine (carpet cleaner), throw out the cardboard box and and throw the towel in the washer.  I love it when a plan comes together, don't you?

I don't suppose that any of you would like to sign up to follow my blog?  I would feel so much better knowing I wasn't doing this for nothing.  Please consider signing up so you can comment and interact with me.  I think being able to have someone tell me what they want me to write about once in a while would be wonderful too.

Have a pleasant tomorrow

Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place

For My Sweet Granddaughter /Your Favorite Dump Cake

This is my granddaughters favorite sweet snack.  I promised to post it for her.  Please enjoy this recipe.

My Christmas shopping is about 3/4 done.  I have a couple of gift cards to buy, stocking gifts for my husband & fur kids and then I'm through.  I have a couple of things to get into the mail and then of course the Christmas cards.  This Christmas may not be as much of a strain as last year.  Now.... if we could just have a foot of snow on or before Christmas I would be in Heaven.

Here's what was going on in the living room while I was cooking on Wednesday night for Thanksgiving.   Homer made a darn fine hat, don't ya think?  Just before I took this picture Homer's leg was on top of Ed's head.



Thanksgiving day the cats were feeling that there was safety in numbers:

Left to right, Fina, Homer, Tanner and Paddy.  After my son and my granddaughter came over the children were very nervous and didn't quite know what to do with themselves.

Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place
                                                      

Recipe for Carrot Pudding

As promised here's the recipe for Carrot Pudding:
1Cup Carrots finely shredded
1 Cup Flour
1 Cup raisins
1 Cup raw potatoes finely shredded
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup melted solid shortening
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Pinch salt

Mix ingredients,  place in a double boiler and steam with a lid on for three hours or until set in the center.  This becomes cake like.
Serve with either ice cream or whipping cream on warm pudding.

Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place

The Holiday Crunch

The Trailblazer is back but only the heat is working.  The air had to be disabled.  It was seizing up and will cost between $700.00 to $800.00 to fix.  That won't get done right now.  We at least have heat for the Winter months.

I've started my Christmas shopping.  I always dread the buying gifts part of Christmas.  I'm afraid that no one will like what I bought for them.  The only part I do like is buying for the cats and dogs.  For the cats, a little catnip goes a long way.  For Homer...the small furry catnip mice are perfect.  He loves them.  The only problem is that he plays with one and then the next morning it's floating in the water bowl.  He's almost as bad as a raccoon.  He has to wash everything.  Even when he gets ahold of something I have cut off a package to open it...it's in the water after a bit of play.  One of his worst habits is reaching under the oven or fridge and scraping out dust bunnies after I've washed the kitchen floor.  I'm never sure if he is trying to tell me that it needed cleaning or he is looking for a mouse he lost. 
Fina likes a little bling.  If I can find something that has rhinestones on it for around her neck, she's happy.  The rest just get balls and catnip.  They all get new collars too.

Speaking of Christmas....we have another recipe that we like to fix for Christmas dinner once in awhile.  It's carrot pudding. It's a steamed pudding and tastes really good.  I'll post it next time I blog again.  I'll also try to get a picture of the children's Christmas stockings hung on the mantle in December to show you they all have a stocking.  I have to get one for Sugar since she's the newest adoptee.

Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place

The Vet Update

Took Hunter and Amos back to the vet for a re-check.  Hunter is 100% better and Amos will remain on antibiotics for the remainder of his life.  But giving a couple of pills a day is nothing.  I remember having to give IV fluids to a couple of older cats for a long period of time........Even our Schnauzer had to have fluids for a short time. We have had two pets that were diabetic and had shots twice a day.   All our friends used to kid us that we were running an animal hospital annex.  Even now there's a bag of fluids hanging on the wall in the kitty room.

My car got dropped off at the Shell station on Mill plain in Vancouver.  I can't run the heat or the air without the idle dropping and almost killing the engine.  Hopefully I will be able to use the heat on the way home from there.  By the time I got the car there today my nose was below zero.  It was super chilly today.  I don't think we got above 42 degrees.  My husband followed me there and then we took the cats to the vet.  After the vet we went to BI-Mart to get my hair coloring.  I came out of the store and was looking for my Trailblazer until it dawned on me that it was a red pickup I was looking for.  I must have looked really dumb standing there with a blank expression on my face.

This week I start cooking for Thanksgiving. I'll be starting with the corn pudding.  This dish was created during the depression as a meat substitute.  For anyone interested here's the recipe:

Grease a 2 quart oven proof casserole dish.

In the casserole dish empty

1 can of cream style corn
1/4 lb butter melted
1 small jar of chopped pimento's
1 can pitted black olives sliced
1 pint tomato sauce ( 16 fluid ounces)
1 cup yellow corn meal
2 eggs beaten
1 1/4 cup milk
1 medium onion minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika

Stir all ingredients until blended.

Cook at 325 degrees until the center is firm ( a knife should come out clean when inserted into the center)
If you make this ahead of time....don't let the center set.  On the day you wish to serve this dish just put it in the oven again at 325 degrees and cook until the center is set.  This dish will also freeze well when fully cooked.
This is a big favorite in our family...I hope you enjoy it with your family as well.
Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place

I'm still here...They haven't beaten me down yet

Sorry......I've been busy with dentist,  doctor and vet appointments all through October.  I'm still not done.   I'll be doing doctor and dentist appointments all through January.  Amos and Hunter have been to the vet several times.  Hunter had a Urinary infection which he must have had for a very long time since he decided to urinate on the carpet in front of me to show he was sick.  There was blood in it.  He just finished a two week round of antibiotics.  He had lost weight and had a dull look in his eyes.  He is now pretty well back to normal and is eating like a little piggy.  Amos, we have determined, must have a growth in his nose.  We have tried every antibiotic we can find and the infection keeps coming back.  We can't afford to have a cat scan on him (at his age) I think we need to just make him comfortable.  I hate to think about saying good bye to another fur child but I know we don't have too long.  The hard part is that Hunter is actually older than Amos.  Though neither one is young...like older than 13 years........It's still too short of a life for my animals.  My cats usually last close to 20 years.  Anyway...I don't want to think about that now.

Thanksgiving is coming very fast.  I shopped  today for all the goodies to cook on Thursday.  I'm not looking forward to all the work but I sure am anxious to see my grand daughter and her significant other Randi.  Misty assured me she would be here for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Then there's Christmas.....
Oh Lord!  More worry about what to get for everyone and lots of work to do both in decorating the house and yard and then cooking the meal again.

I have my husband's family gifts bought. Now a couple of gift cards and I'm done with buying.  Well maybe not...I still have to get my husband a big fat gift.  It's so hard to buy for someone who hates everything you get for him.  I can even purchase something he said he wanted and he would never use what ever it was because I gave it to him.  I swear I'm not making this up!  Well enough of that.......

I'm hoping for Snow close to Christmas this year.  I love the Christmas lights with snow all around them.  I'm not crazy about the new LED lights though.  They aren't as bright and showy as the old ones.  My husband is going to put them up tomorrow morning I think.  That means this week I will have to put up the huge wreath on the front of the house and the lights, ornaments and topper on the Blue Spruce in the front yard.  Oh, I almost forgot....the air-blown Snowman on the side yard too.  I never got out all the decorations last year so I think I'll start early this year.  I always feel guilty when I don't put them all out.  I don't feel guilty however.....when it's time to put things away because it's a lot faster without all the extra stuff.

I went out to lunch with an old friend of mine last week and we had the best time.  She gave me some advice about our current flea problem.  She uses Cedar chips in her dog run and it keeps the fleas to a dull roar.  I think after the holidays we need to do the same thing.  Our two girls are both California girls and DO NOT like to go potty in the muddy dog run.  It's bad enough that we have made them come to a colder and wetter climate....but now we expect them to use a muddy bog instead of soft green (dry) grass?????  How uncivilized!  I'm hoping that the cedar chips or shavings will entice them into using the dog run again.
Have a pleasant one today
Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place's