Animal control is doing it's absolute best. The staff there and the administrators who run the organizations are at least as well educated re the overall situation of cat over-population as any of us. They resort to euthanasia because they understand it is the most humane option for unwanted animals. If you have an unwanted cat, take it to your local animal control center and let them deal with it in the most educated and humane way possible. People make it seem like "kill" shelters are the evil option. They aren't sitting waiting, drooling, over their next batch of stray cats they get to kill. They have exhausted all other options, and known that euthanasia, while unpleasant, is better than the other alternatives. If you are going to bother putting a stray cat in your car and transporting it somewhere, please take it to the nearest shelter--kill or no-kill. And offer a donation while you are there.

I have walking onions and true potato seeds I got in trade, could I trade those for cattail seeds and rosemary? let me know at mamahack@hotmail.com

I have a story, but it isn't funny. We have a little yorkie-poo. She was less than a year old when she got sick. She had a few stomach issues and they did a poop culture (sorry!), and found some type bacteria. Treated that but within a couple of weeks, she started vomiting one evening. She had never done this and after a couple of times I called our vet. Because of her small size (she's only 9 lbs. now fully grown) they had us bring her in so she wouldn't get dehydrated. They examined her, pumped her full of fluids and suggested we watch her closely overnight. The fluids and some meds helped with the vomiting but by early morning she was vomiting again. We got up, dressed and ready to get her to the vet their opening time. They did an x-ray and showed us that something was showing in her digestive track. Something she had ingested. I remembered that she had torn one of her little toys and although I never saw any stuffing out of the toy, I knew there was stuffing and we just assumed she had eaten that. They had to do emergency exploratory surgery. I bawled my eyes out. The next day when we were allowed to *visit*, the vet showed me the PLASTIC MEAT WRAPPER that she had eaten. It was to a pretty critical point, it had started through her intestines. The vet was wonderful, even took our little baby home with her overnight to keep a close eye on her and the pup came through the surgery with flying colors. And a nice little *zipper* down her belly. Hubby and I both felt awful. We didn't know she had gotten the wrapper. We figured that she had quickly grabbed it out of the garbage (which was behind a closed door, but if she saw us put something in there she'd jump up to investigate) and gotten away with it without us seeing. The stick on label on the plastic wrapping was what we were seeing on the x-ray. Alot of tears and $$$ over a meat wrapper! She's not interested in the garbage anymore (she was just a puppy then) thankfully, but we are even more cautious when throwing something away! I never throw away a meat wrapper now without putting it in another bag and tying it up first. Our pup too watches tv. It's hilarious. There was an M&M commercial that she didn't like. Now she doesn't like the Weight Watchers commercial where they have the little orange monster (hungry). She knows by the very first sound of that commercial that it's THE ONE and immediately starts barking. She barks at most dogs she sees on tv, other than cesear. Maybe because he's little like her. tina

I don't know that ios have a typical hostplant. The first time I had them, they were eating rose. These days, I raise them on Japanese maple. When I was deciding what to do about some yellow sweet clover that was running wild in my yard this year, I was surprised to find out ios eat it. The caterpillars are fun to watch when they are in their gregarious stage. Walk around in single file. Do a group skin shedding. Unless a species is a known pest, this group is most likely going to be in favor of letting the caterpillars live. Ios are a pretty moth so that ups their stock here. KC