Cat food recall update

You know, many things frustrate me, but none like a news organization alluding to a very important story for almost an hour and not divulging information. Thus is the case of the latest developments on the cat food recall. I had caught that there had been developments in the potential cause(s) of the illnesses and deaths. What I hadn't caught was that the recall had been expanded. So when I'd heard that it had, I was watching CNN, who, for at least half an hour, kept mentioning that it had been expanded, but didn't mention to what dry food. This became very frustrating, to which I spent the time to boot up my computer (which takes a while to boot up as I have a lot that loads) to look into it online. I found contradictory information on the company's website ( http://www.menufoods.com/recall ). I finally was able to find out that it is Science Diet Prescription Dry Cat food. This was scary for me because I was supposed to take Nimbus to a normal vet to get him on prescription cat food after his crystal blockage last year. But I called the vet hospital that treated him, and not only did she remember the furball once I described the lard@ss, she said she feeds her cat the same stuff I am feeding mine without any problems (Purina One Urinary Tract Formula), and that if there were to be any issues with the food as concerns this recall's problems, I'd see the effects quite quickly. And since they've been eating out of this 18 lb bag of cat food for at least couple weeks now, we're in the clear. So I consider myself lucky that I have good access to decently priced good cat food and great veterinary services available anytime not too far away. I cannot imagine what must be going through so many cat and dog owners' heads who have lost their beloved pets possibly due to this food. I hope this is resolved soon and we learn a couple valuable lessons from this - namely, less foreign dependence and stricter inspection and quality control of our food supply - both for humans and animals.

Today's Ramblings

I finally figured out where I picked up the term "mug" from - the K9 Advantix puppy commercial! Talk about picking up something from a commercial unconciously! But now that's one less thing pestering my always-curious lil brain.
Things are going groovy here, nothing I can complain about for the most part. I've gotten done some of the stuff I've been wanting to. I got my box nearly completed, though the mesh bottom is waiting for me to finish it and attach it to the side walls, but I got distracted. I'm 90% finished with creating my own cradle for my PocketPC (though I didn't cut a hole for the charger to go through so it will have to sit on battery power). But this'll enable me to multitask a bit if I need to and I should have it finished soon! I'll post pics of the walls of the box here soon (if I can get them to come out right). Perhaps I'll go fetch the pics from the other box I made and post them too.
It appears once again the cause of the sick cats eating Menu Foods' products has changed. It's no longer rat poison, it's a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer. PETA wants the recall to expand to dry food - but there are two big problems with this. 1, a lot of cats would have to starve as they'll only eat one brand of food and if it's recalled, they won't eat. 2, there's no evidence that any animal has gotten sick from eating dry food, and I think with the scrutiny going on right now, we'd know about it if there had been cases of this happening.
My family has been very lucky in this first major outbreak of tornados in this once-again early tornado season. When the system moved east out of Western Kansas, they greatly decreased in strength, which is always good news. However, it's just getting started, and tornado season has at least two or three more months to go. I'm not about to take a sigh of relief just yet.
What's up lately with Philadelphia's homicide rate? Very quickly, it's gone from a quiet start to another record-breaking year. You know I thought Cincinnati was dangerous. But I'm starting to think Cincinnati's safer as you might get shot, but your chances of dying are less. Cincinnati's homicide rate is just more than one fatal shooting a week, a record year being 70 or so. Philadelphia saw 406 last year alone, and this year is on its way to 500+ if the current trend continues. The city is truly in crisis, and the "stop snitching" campaign taken on by some in the criminal syndicate is not helping. People need to speak up. Yes there's a chance of retaliation. But the community can't improve so long as the criminal element is allowed to continue operating with relative security.
Anyways, I'll post more later when I got more to say.

Ramblings

Ayeee! I finally figured out how to show and enable comments on this "mug" of a blog. They sure don't know how to make it easy! I still wish I could stay logged in, it makes me want to scream sometimes! Oh well though.
It's been one heck of a week, up and down, but I've made it through another week. A friend of mine is having an even more difficult time than me and I keep prodding him, 'If I can make it, so can you.' I really do hope he keeps going, the loss of a troubled life turned around is a greater waste than a troubled life lost because it's a loss of hope to others. We all have our ups and downs for sure, sometimes it seems more down than anything. It's not the troubles that make or break us, it's how we get through them that builds us.
Now that I have my life at least somewhat back in order, I've been considering trying to repair past relationships that have gone awry. I'm not talking ex's or anything, just a few friendships that have ended bitterly in the past that I would like to at least mend fences with. But there are a couple that I fear are beyond hope, and one that I cannot apologize for as the situation isn't my fault. I know, it sounds ignorant, but sometimes, you just know you were right to stand up. How successful I'll be and whether or not I'll actually get the guts to do it or not, I don't know.
I had another close call with the cat food recall a day or two ago. I'd gotten word that more of the food had been recalled, and backdated a little more, so I had to go back and check, and sure enough, it had moved back a month. Luckily I'm still in the clear, so I'm ok. I just want to know how in the **** RAT POISON made it onto anything, much less animal food. There's already talk of class-action lawsuits etc. Just hold on a minute, people. I know, nothing will bring back your beloved furbaby, but let's get all the facts first. The company doesn't even know how it got there yet, and it took them a while to figure out why the animals were getting sick in the first place and make the connection to which brands of food. Let's wait to pass judgement here. The company has already said they would pay for any vet bills incurred because of this problem. Just hang tight for a little while; let the company and the government investigate what's going on. I am pretty sure within the next week or so there will be a criminal investigation if the evidence leans that way. Just let the scientists do their thing.
Anyways, I think that's more than enough rambling for one person for one day. I hope whoever reads this smiles a little bit as I poke fun at my sleepy@** self! Peace!

A New Low for Philadelphia PD

Shoplifting Cop
Short, sweet and to the point: Cop stole toys from a store! Ok this is a new one for me. I've heard of cops selling drugs that was in evidence lockers, cops hiring prostitutes (not undercover), just about everything. But a POLICE OFFICER stealing TOYS! I know they don't pay cops a lot, but to have to steal TOYS, come on! Ayeeee!

From the mind of the Lynx

So much has gone on lately that I've found myself with a major case of writer's block to say the least. I guess maybe a couple days of venting about the news has helped, but there is still so much going on, and no one really to talk to about it that really should know about it. The last six years have been rough, loosing Mom, and due to that losing most of my family, then six years later exactly losing her best friend whom I'd grown up around. Been a lot of off-and-on work too, I never knew how vulnerable one could be to the pitfalls of the economy. Briefly in Ohio, I understood what it must've been like to be alive during the Great Depression. It wasn't just the economic poverty holding people down, it surely led to a LOT of cases of depression and countless untold suicides. It's another reason I have such respect for my grandparents' and her parents' generation - they endured a LOT of stuff in their lives - economic boom followed by a crushing bust, world wars, you name it, they went through it. A lot has been lost because future generations either rebelled from the lessons their parents tried to teach them, or were ignorant of just how many lessons history has to teach us. I am really glad I am alive in this time and not back then, heck I am at the point I don't think I'd be sane if I didn't have my PDA, especially at night when I can't get to sleep. I'd actually do just fine without a cellphone, I find them more hassle than they're worth most of the time. T-mobile sent me a text message when I put the last $10 card on my phone saying that I was now a gold rewards member meaning my minutes wouldn't expire for a year... They didn't bother to add to that message that it wouldn't take effect until the next card was put on it. So now my phone is dead except for if I have to dial 911 and my money has been wasted. What happened to customer satisfaction and the customer is always right? Bah humbug!
I walked into the bedroom a few minutes ago and there on the bed was the love of my life holding the feline love of my life... It was so precious I almost got the camera to take a picture of it. Just seeing Mic sleeping with his arm around Curzon was precious - he's been missing having a cuddle cat and to see that Curzon let him wrap him up was adorable. I can usually cuddle that cat for a while, but he always gets up before I fall asleep. Perhaps its because I take a while to fall asleep usually? LOL I'm just so happy that my cats took to Mic so well, heck Jadzia HATES men... But not Mic! And Curzon... He's always been quite protective of me, but he has finally learned to relax a little bit at least. It took him quite a long time for him to realize that I was ok (he hated all the yelling I did - and for good reason - he seen me endure many a panic attack and arguments with teenagers). And now that we've been out of the hell-hole that is Cincinnati for a while now, he is starting ever-so-slowly to sleep a bit deeper on occasion, as he is not having to listen so intently for pending danger. I remember more than once in Ohio he would lay real close to the door to act as a first line of defense against intruders. I was lucky, no one broke into the apartment; who's to say no one tried though, especially when I wasn't home. But I haven't had to see Curzon or the other cats go nuts on anyone yet. I have no doubt though what they are capable of... Me and Mic both have the scars to prove it - and they were just playing with us!!
So off I go for now, and apologies in advance if there are typos in this post, as I'm on the pocketpc and too lazy to go into word first and spell-check myself. If I didn't catch it, I ain't going to until I want to!! LOL Peace folks!

The not-quite-so-perfect perfect plan

"Dude, they found our stash!"
It seemed like the perfect plan. Steal an ambulance that didn't have any particular city's markings on it, hide 400 pounds of marijuana, and haul it across the country without anyone getting suspicious. But they forgot to factor in Murphy's Law: if it CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong. And it did. The ambulance broke down. An off-duty cop got suspicious. And he was right. See, not all small-town cops are retards or crooked! Some are indeed at least intuitive!

Sunday's Headlines

BEFORE my op/ed on the news... If you haven't heard about the major dog/cat food recall, you need to get on top of it and make sure that you don't have the stuff in question. On the cat side, it involves almost EVERY brand of wet food - generic, normal, and expensive alike. Only Purina and Science Diet seems to have escaped. It seems that if you bought your food a month or so ago, you should be alright, but it's best to check anyways, because many animals have died and neither the government NOR the manufacturer can figure out what caused it. And it goes without saying, if your animal just isn't quite acting right, don't debate what to do, take the animal to the vet NOW. It's always better safe than sorry, and if something is wrong, the sooner the vets can get to saving your animal's life, the better their chances of succeeding are.

Boy goes missing from campsite
I'm quite curious to know how this boy was able to drift away from the people who were supposed to be watching him. I'd understand a little more if the supervisor had been greatly outnumbered, but this does not appear to be the case. I know kids wander... but they should always be watched, not just because they might walk away and get lost, but more importantly, because there are a lot of predators in the woods who will attack a young child as if it's any other prey. Now if criminal charges are possible, I don't know. But the minimum this person needs to do is apologize to this child's family and help in the effort to find him alive.

Lowlife steals from Irwin's legacy
I don't even know where to start here. I thought Australia was in love with their famous animal crusader - like most of the rest of the cable-tv watching world. So for someone (and it has to be assumed the thief or thieves are likely Australian as smuggling that many animals out of the country would be near impossible) to walk off with that many reptiles from Irwin's zoo, where people work so diligently day in and day out to educate the rest of us, for probably just some money is just incredibly disgusting. I am no expert on Australian law, but I bet they got a special place in their prison system for the offenders - solitary confinement! I hope whoever did this develops a guilty conscience quick and returns the animals before they get sick and/or die.

Teacher's husband kills boy she was sleeping with
We hear the story all the time it seems nowadays - beautiful teacher has affair with young boy. But this time the story takes a twist - her husband kills the young man his wife was sleeping with. Now we're not talking some young boy just out of middle school. We're talking a 17 year old at the time who had to have known what he was doing was wrong. He was hiding it from everyone and only fessed up to his biological Mom because he was using her phone. I'm sure the husband didn't see this situation as much as his wife preying on a boy, I'm sure he saw it more as a man trying to split up his marriage and therefore reacted the way he did. I'm not condoning him shooting the young man, just trying to put some reason to it. Now both the cheating wife and the surely-enraged husband will be spending time behind bars. All because of bad decisions.

Cops checking car doors
Oy vey! Did the police department not consult their lawyers first? They would've surely told them that what they were planning was unconstitutional. If the lawyers didn't, then they're obviously no lawyers at all. If me or anyone else reading this were to do such a thing, no matter how good the intentions, we'd be arrested for breaking and entering, even if we didn't take anything! Would someone please send these police officers back to basic law classes!

A wee laugh (at my expense!)

This is what happens to me when I get bored and can't sleep at night... I either read, play a game, or doodle on the pocketpc... see, sleeplessness isn't a good thing at all! Just a little comedy for all my friends, another serious blog coming soon.

Global Warming?

I'm not completely sure I'm buying into this whole human-caused global warming "crisis" just yet. I'm sure we haven't helped things out, but our earth has a KNOWN history of warming and cooling. There have even been at least one DOCUMENTED case of a "little ice age" in our not-so-distant history. Could it be this warming trend is just the lead-up to a big cool-down? I know we here in the American Northeast aren't too sure what to make of it. One week it's unseasonably warm (heck it was in the 70s only a few days ago), a matter of a few days or a week later it's bitterly cold (we had a monster of a sleetstorm here yesterday and it's below freezing still). Something obviously is changing though. That's especially apparent after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. How often do we see two such horrific storms in the same year in the same region? But to say that all this is because of the humans is jumping to conclusions. I have no problem with recycling more, walking more if it's not far away, taking the bus if the system is safe and reasonably priced, or knotching down the thermostat a couple degrees as long as I'm not freezing. But there are limits. I'm not willing to depend on fire alone to keep me warm (and who's to say all those fireplaces that we used for all but the last few decades didn't contribute to global warming just as drastically) or give up my computer's email service (would you rather me waste a few sheets of paper a day when I could use an energy-efficient computer that isn't even on much to make people laugh and check on family). All I'm saying is let's be reasonable. Let's get beyond our oil dependency. It's hydrogen's time to shine. Besides, the water by-product could help farmers during a drought, which would increase crop production, in turn keeping people fed better. Let's recycle all of our old gas-guzzling cars and use THAT to build our buildings before we go mining for more ore. Let's all have a little garden of our own like many WW2 families did, even if it's just a few pots on our balcony. Let's stop working 60-80 hour weeks so we can be home with our families and have time to COOK instead of relying so much on pre-packaged meals. And if we need to work longer, lets do it at home while the kids are asleep. I know, it all sounds good, and for some is too much to ask, and for others, impractical for their lives. But if we all do a little, it'll add up and maybe, just maybe, we'll be happier, more productive people, generating less trash and wasting valuable limited resources.

What is going on? (News from places I've lived)

Beyond Disgusting Animal Cruelty

What the F*** is going on? I may not like spiders, but I'd never do anything even REMOTELY close to a spider that this person did to this poor dog! The person should be hanged, since, if they did this to a dog, what would they do to a human who just happened to accidentally make this person angry? Obviously this person is a danger to society - animal and human. Sadly the most this person will spend in jail will probably be less than a couple years. Not nearly enough.

CPD Officer A Rapist?

Now come on, Cincinnati Police. Help your brothers out. Show that not ALL Cincinnati cops are crooked, evil, or just cannot be trusted. No wonder some of the African-American community has boycotted the town, and citizens are leaving like crazy. Now granted, the economy can't be helping, and the good cops surely aren't being paid enough, but there is a line you just don't cross, and taking advantage of a woman in a desperately dire situation is below any standard, even for normal male citizens. It's time for an overhaul in Cincinnati, and perhaps it needs to start at the top. All I know is that change MUST be made.

Campus High School Threat

Oh my old high school hasn't changed... I remember bomb threats, hit lists, and big ol fights, and that started in elementary school! By middle school the bomb threats and hit lists started, and my freshman year, we had a quite infamously dubious "suicide." Now comes word that a 12 year old girl (or somewhere close to that) committed suicide. This isn't even a big city! It's a small "bedroom community" of Wichita supposedly known for its tranquility - it sure was for the most part when I was growing up! Here's what I think needs to happen. We need to remove the stigmatism in the school district of receiving help from the school councilors or therapists. We need to admit that young adults can and DO suffer from depression and stress. We need to teach coping skills early on so that students know how to deal with it. We need to teach students better and cut back on the homework some. Parents need to help by not focusing so hard on having their children over-booked in after-school activities. Most importantly, we need competent teachers, not ones that take advantage of our students (see this link). Come on folks. Let's take pride in having a safe town to rest our heads in at night and start making it the great little town it was years ago. I understand it has grown considerably - even in the years since I've been gone. But even bigger small towns can still have the small-town safety and ambiance.

Yuma worries about railroad

Come on, kids. I understand you're a town completely dependent on illegals and Marines (what a combination), but let's be real. Almost every town has railroad tracks running through them, and yes sometimes it leads to rivalries. But most community divides have nothing to do with railroad tracks. A simple street can be the dividing line between poor and rich, or even just two schools which can lead to a friendly - and possibly fun - rivalry. Quit whining about the trivial crap. Focus on safety. How are you going to make sure the railroad doesn't interfere with vehicle traffic? How are you going to insure cars and people aren't going to be hit? Are you just going to put up arms, which people tend to ignore? Or are you going to build an over- or underpass for the train? These are the REAL issues.

First Moblog

Giving it a try!