You got other more informative responses, but he definitely had a battery powered one first. The Super Soaker put it to shame though, in terms of volume of water delivered per unit of time.

This reminds me of the time when my brother introduced me to battery powered water guns. I had no idea such a thing existed (Super Soakers followed shortly after). It was no match for my puny squirt gun.

Damn. I’m glad my ecobee is grandfathered in on the api.

For our dog, we knew we wanted a dog that would be good with the cats, so we passed any that were going nuts barking at us. That gave us a list of about 5 to meet. Two were Huskies, and the shelter worker asked, “Have you had a Husky before?” At which point we realized that probably wasn’t a good idea. A third dog was already spoken for. We met the last two, and while meeting the second one we started talking about which one we liked more, while the second dog was still in the room with us. We noticed that he settled down really quickly, just kind of relaxed and chilled out while we were talking.

8 years later, he’s still that way! A little excited at new situations at first, but then he calms down. The cats love him. I hope the other dog found her forever home quickly.

For the cats, it’s just about the vibe with the cat. It can be hard to tell because they’re so reserved, and shelters are stressful places. So far we’ve only really been surprised by one cat’s personality - in the shelter video (during covid) he would demand to be carried around, but he wants none of that at home. But because of the pandemic, we never met him in person before adopting him, and I think that had an effect - he just got stuffed into a carrier and handed to us. He is slowly coming out of his shell (6 years later), but he may never be a lap cat, and he still runs to hide under the bed very often. We’re still giving him a good home though.

My cat punched me on the face at 4:45 this morning until I woke up. Then he walked away; he didn’t want anything. He just appointed himself alarm clock.

Definitely don’t want a larger version.

My god you’re an ass. I’m just going to block you so I don’t have to see your insane takes and bad comics.

I’m old enough to remember the Leisure Suit Larry series that used age verification by asking questions that kids probably wouldn’t know (obviously this was long before the internet).

So many tuxedos. I thought we were slightly crazy for having two.

We’ve gotten to be experts on giving cats medicine.

For pills, a pill popper is necessary. They’re available on Amazon pretty cheaply, I think we got 2 for $10 or something. Basically you have the cat facing away from you, so they can only back into your body (and get nowhere), bring the popper up to their mouth, then when they open, possibly because you used your other hand to touch their mouth on the other side, put the popper in and pop the pill. You want to get fairly far in, not down their throat, but fairly far back. Then close their mouth and make sure they swallow, such as by scratching their chin. Then give them a treat or even just some scratches and pets to reward them for being a good cat. I like doing it on the counter in the kitchen, because I don’t have to bend down, it’s just much more comfortable.

Some medicines can be compounded into a paste that goes on their inner ear. We have one that does this. He’s not a huge fan of it, but it goes much better than the liquid it replaced. More expensive, but it’s worth avoiding the hassle. The pharmacy compounds it and ships it to us once a month.

I don’t have great advice for liquid medicines. We’ve done it, and one of our cats has a liquid medicine now, and we administer it without an issue. But, the last time we tried it on a different car, the cat just wasn’t cooperating at all. Part of the issue may have been that we had to give him 3 different medications, so it was stressing him out by the third one. Two of his prescriptions ended, and the third was the one that we were able to get in paste form for his ear. (Also it might go better now that we have more experience with it.)

Obviously the temperment of the cat is a huge factor here. We popped many pills on our tabby and our current (sick) cat without major issues, but the third cat is much harder. Our other cat barely lets us touch him, so that will be a major problem if he needs medication some day.

The good news is that all of them have forgiven us pretty quickly afterward.

More Stitch: Last night, after I turned off the light, he came up to my face (I was laying on my side). After a short conversation with him about how I was hoping to fall asleep quickly, he flopped down on the side of my face. I told my wife she should take a look at the situation. A moment later, I heard her laughing and she said, “Stitchercat, never change!”

I said, “He could change a little bit!” Fortunately, Stitch got up after a moment and went back to curling up at my feet.

My own personal towel warmer!

I’m so sorry. I know how hard it is to lose one.

Oh he’s pretty smart. He’s a mix of loving and cuddly, and ornery. He knew exactly what he was doing when he climbed in the basket.

One of our cats curls up at or on my feet at night. I generally get a little bit of movement, but if there’s too much, the claws come out, and I get punished.

If I wake up, he often comes up to my head and demands attention. He rarely actually wakes me up, he has the decency to wait for me to wake up. Usually.

Still a better deal than my wife gets, our 60lb dog loves to curl up with her, baking her and sometimes even kicking her out of bed. Several times a week I wake up and she’s not there, while the dog is curled up on her pillow.

Debian - the very slight value hassle of having to install the web blobs for glances manually. This is really minor, because it only comes up occasionally, but it’s rare enough that I can’t remember what the path is each time.

That said, I totally agree with Debian’s stance on the issue, and I think glances should change their process. Debian’s way makes me acknowledge the risk of installing the blob. It’d be nice if there was a package I could install after going, yep, I know this is potentially dangerous.

Honestly I thought I’d be disappointed with Debian on my gaming machine, but it works fine. I updated Wine to the newer version on their site (instead of using Debian’s packages), and it works great.

We have a bag that is specifically for carrying cats. Someone gave it to us after her cats hated it, but I don’t think we ever tried it. And the cat who is most likely to agree to it isn’t in great shape health wise. He’s a gray and white mix like yours.

I believe their paws and head hang out.

Uh keep in mind they could just unplug the computer. Software limits are good, but if they really want to shut it off, they’ll find a way.

Certificate of Deposit, a type of savings account that generates higher interest than a regular savings account.

Your sit down meals must be incredibly cheap. In this area, they’ve gone up, too. We usually don’t get out of a sit down meal for less than about $50 these days. And we’re not ordering extravagant meals or any alcohol. Fast food will be $20-$30 for the two of us.

My dog will walk for hundreds of feet in the “poop walk” (head down, slow pace) before poop actually starts… If it ever does.

I joked to someone that we could be in a town that’s a few miles away (in the general direction we were going) before he actually decides to poop.