Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for July 24, 2019

Some of the classic “nursery rhymes” are definitely on the brutal side. The original purpose of children’s literature was to teach lessons about behavior rather than to entertain. There are many origin stories for “Rockabye Baby.” ranging from the practice of Native American mother’s placing cradles in trees where the wind can gently rock them to being a lesson that people who are overly ambitions will experience a major fall! There’s also a second verse:

“Rock-a-bye baby

Up in the sky

On a soft cloud

‘Tis easy to fly

When the cloud bursts

The raindrops will fall

And baby comes down to

Mommy once more."

Such righteous indignation! Elvis needs reassurance and he needs it now!

Elvis, stickler for facts, is totally correct. A lot of nursery rhymes are bizarre at best, when you look at them, and often fairly horrific in origin, when you look into them. Their comfort value is more about the rhythm of the sounds, and of course that those sounds come from a trusted voice.

Many fairy tales are so much worse, once you get past the Disney versions…or out into the less well-known ones. Fertile ground for writers to adapt and play with – I love the “fractured fairy tale” subgenre.

Elvis does seem sufficiently distracted from thunderstorms, power outages, and possible Strange Cats, so well done, Woman!

Also: just noticed that Elvis is counting off nursery rhymes, one-two-three toes, in Panel 3! So cute!

I understand Elvis’s about that the old man who couldn’t get up in the morning because it meant his cat didn’t get breakfast. I hope he listened long enough to learn that spider endures and survives to go up the spout again! And in the second verse, the baby lands back in her mommy’s arms!

Cuddles, Elvis. You need cuddles. Don’t be afraid; go to the Woman and curl up on her lap.

Just two days ago, I was in a three-day period of no power due to a lightning strike. Nighttime wasn’t too bad, but my Clayton was asking me why I wasn’t turning down the thermostat.

Thought id share my good news early since ill be busy sunday :)

OT: Shop News

A 2-week rainstorm? Sheesh, and I thought Missouri was bad!

She needs to read ‘Six Dinner Sid’ and REALLY confuse him!

Confidence, Woman! Confidence! No more of these tragic, defeatist stories! Read something about the storm turning into a gentle rain and being under a snug roof and warm, comfy lap snoozing with a full belly and a scritch here and there!

Yeah, but the itsy bitsy spider comes back when the rain stops! Nothing can stop her!

OT – eye update. Saw the Retina specialist yesterday and the swelling/fluid in the left eye isn’t related to the macular degeneration. it’s scar tissue on the retina causing the problem. Surgery is the answer, which he said could be put off until my sight worsens, but sooner is better for the best results. I was expecting him to say I needed a shot in the eye, not surgery so need to do a little research and wrap my mind around it. I have a follow up appt in Jan, so am thinking of having it done then, unless it gets worse before then. suprisingly, i’m not scared, just healthfully concerned.

No one does indignation better than Elvis, he’s the King! and The Toddler is started to wonder if The Woman has always had such poor taste in literature and is it hereditary??

OT: My housing situation (thank you for prayers, $, everything!)

You’re absolutely right, Elvis. The children deserve better stories.

Elvis has the most epic Angry Face ever.

Nowwaitaminute. Where have I heard this story before…

How about this story, Elvis : it begins as “it’s a dark and stormy night..”

When you’re right, you’re right, Elvis.

The Boy is skeptical, the Penguin is unimpressed.

That’s a lovely book jacket for the bedtime stories with the moon on the front. And is that the big dipper on the back?

Off topic … TL:DR: asking if anyone has taken or otherwise has experience with turmeric.

I followed up on the directive I received in Baltimore to get hooked up with a pain management specialist. Had my first appointment with her yesterday. I’m scheduled for an EMG (nerve conduction testing) next month to drill down a bit more on the source of my pain (i.e. is a nerve pinched somewhere). She doesn’t want to give me anything stronger than I’m already on, prescription-wise, which I am in full agreement with. (I took Darvocet for five days once after breaking my tailbone several years ago, and that was all it took to develop a dependence on it.)

However, she did suggest taking turmeric. I developed a healthy skepticism of “natural” remedies many years ago when someone suggested St. John’s Wort for depression and it messed up my vision, but I’m willing to try it. Anyone have any experience with it?

OMC, what a face in the last panel. Careful, Elvis, your face could freeze like that and you’d scare the baby!

How about a rousing chorus of “The cat came back” which proves that even if all is destroyed, the cats will survive. And then for soothing boredom, all the verses to “99 Bottles of Milk on the wall…”

Bookstore news and distracting stories are fine, but let’s get back to the headline: who is that strange cat and what is she doing in the basement?!?

‘Grimm’ Tales indeed, Elvis!! – Grimm Tales! … Oh, Brother(s)!!! ;)

arrrrgh. when are we going to see goldie again?

Elvis will inspire confidence in any situation.

Elvis’ magnificent frown

When my sister’s kids were little, I would entertain them with Roddy, a monkey puppet. Roddy’s version of the baby falling song was, “Rock a bye monkey in the banana tree. When the wind blows, the monkey goes ‘Wheeeee!’”

. . . do you like to color with crayons? So does Ms Dunn! lol! :)

https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en

Bratzilla lives…

I talked with someone in the front office yesterday about the situation, & it seems to me that everyone – not just the main parties involved – is talking across each other. Sheesh.

Staff have floated the idea of J moving in with me. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but I’m not really ready for another roommate so soon after losing PJ, & anyway (1) his room is still full of his stuff that I haven’t had a chance to pack up & (2) his SIL, who’s in charge of his affairs, is out of the country on vacation for another week & a half & I don’t know what she wants to do with it.

I don’t have a problem with J crashing in PJ’s room indefinitely, & staff don’t either because she’s technically still a tenant in the building even though her main living situation is impossible. But those other things need to be resolved before we can do anything official.

Meanwhile, Bratzilla has been texting me & wants to talk. I sort of blew her off because J has been here & because I really don’t know what to say to her, except that if PJ were still here, he’d be kicking her skinny butt all over the place for being such a little (excuse my French) bee-yaaaaatch (not to mention for other chronic bad life choices that put her in danger she refuses to acknowledge, ’nuff said about that)!

@dmah: They tried to find a spot in inpatient rehab for her but nothing was available, & she was resisting going to “some place full of old people” anyway…

@Sue Ellen: It’s not physically abusive (thank Ceiling Cat), it’s just a lot of sound & fury, horrible non-trust issues, uncertainty RE living situations, & resulting major stress for all concerned…

…and yes, @scaeva, I do feel like “the only functioning control rod in a twin-core nuclear pile”…

Life goes on in the mean time, & as always, thank you Mega-Orb & all the little Orbs for your support!

I love Elvis’ curmudgeon face.

Off Topic: Here’s Georgia on today’s face book answering the question of how far ahead she does the strips. The question was in regard to the power outage strip showing up so soon “The Sundays are about a month out, and the dailies are about two weeks. I remember that sneak peek! It had been the set up strips to the week I had been currently working on, (the power outage on the night of the NYC power outage! I was painting next week’s strips during that, but showed this week’s to introduce it) so I believe I showed those about 3-5 days before they begun appearing.”

Storm folklore tends to focus on drama. The story about the cats who stayed in the warm dry house with plenty of food, water, conveniently placed humans, and cozy hiding places doesn’t get told nearly enough. :-)

Take heart, my feline friend! All will be well.

And what about the kittens and their mittens?

Update: OT

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, orbsters. J-L felt well enough to ride his bike to the workforce commission this morning to get their help with finding a job. He left before I was awake even though I told him that I could drive him if he didn’t feel like riding. He just got home a few minutes ago and I read him your comments from last night. I told him to call about a police report, and he also said there was no chance of traffic cameras because it was in a residential area. His knee is still sore from skinning it and I had to give him the bad news that, since he didn’t get the driver’s info, if he turns out to have a torn minicus or something else is wrong with his knee, then he will be responsible for the doctor’s bills because any insurance will say it is a pre-existing condition. He’s taking his bike in for a tune-up tomorrow since it’s been a couple of months since the last one.

Maybe Elvis would prefer a little Poe, like maybe The Black Cat Of course given the animal cruelty of the story, maybe not.

Not really on topic:

I can absolutely see Elvis stamping his foot in the last frame, LOL!! We are getting there, little by little, thank you again to all of you who have shared, donated, even just read about our light! https://www.gofundme.com/f/surgery-for-swiftypaws