The crossed eyes are not a problem! The vet says she is part Siamese so that also explains the long neck, the tightrope walking and the purtling talk. It doesn't explain the white fur with ginger colored markings. Several things are going on with her, right now. The major thing is the neutering will be a bit later. I'm not sure of the vet's reasoning but since she is not having long periods of heat, we will go along with it. The next thing, of equal importance is she got a dose of Revolution. This is supposed to take care of things like heartworms, fleas, some kind of tick, ear mites and who knows what else and it is used once a month. It is supposed to be applied to the back of her head. I am not sure we can tolerate just how sick she got. I guess it wasn't so serious as all that but she was obviously miserable for three days so I am wondering if it is worth it. Have any of you used it on your pets? Should we continue with it? The vet says she did have ear mites so her ears were irrigated again. She seemed a lot less upset about it this time. There were no baleful looks or vocal outrage and no cowering in the corner although she did get down on the bench again. Everyone got through it without scratches this time and they clipped her claws, just in case. Hopefully the second treatment and the Revolution will take care of them. Once again, I carried her in the mesh softside hamper. It is so much easier than trying to get any cat in one of the regular carriers. I do need to figure out a better closer though. She can get out much too easily. Once again, people thought it was such a good idea for a small pet. I think this must be one of those ideas that lots of people get at the same time. I have never figured that one out but it does happen to me fairly often. Has it ever happened to you? I guess the next problem to solve will be getting her teeth cleaned. She has some obvious tarter and it must be uncomfortable. Do they give her an anesthetic? Should it be done when she is neutered? How the heck do you brush a kitties teeth? I bought a tooth brush and toothpaste (tuna flavored)but I've never had to do this before. I think it may take both me and DH to accomplish this little task and DH gets pretty stressed trying to do anything like giving medication. This could definitely be a snapshot opportunity. How come all cats will sit on anything you are trying to read? I'm not sure how it could be genetic but every cat we have had would do it. Ginger now has added getting between me and the keyboard. More often, it is sitting or laying ON the keyboard. It makes such amusing noises and I make some unusual noises as well. She has changed the settings on the screen so often I have given up changing them back. There are three labels for "My Network Places", the icons are now on the left instead of the right, "Desktop and "My Documents" are right under the icons and everything else is scattered all over the place. No more clicking on something without looking on this screen. Half the time I lose most of the task bars, which can be very interesting. Thank goodness for "Computers for Dummies". She doesn't care so long as she can get scratching and head rubs and she can rub against my face, or sit on my hands. And of course there are those delightful noises. Oh, I forgot about the tightrope walking. The laundry room is a great play room. Not only can you curl up in the freshly dried clothes, you have all sorts of places to hide and climb. Getting to the shelves up really high was fun until you jumped and the rod for hanging stuff was too full. It wasn't much fun getting out from under all those clothes. It's lots of fun to sick your head in the washer while it is filling with water and during the spin cycle you have to sit on the lid. Mom won't let you get into the dryer with the wet clothes even if it looks like great fun. The best thing though, is to climb on the 3 section laundry sorter. While the top of the metal frame is fun it is much more challenging to walk on the fabric walls that separate the bins. Even if you fall you can't get hurt. Sandy

Thanks for the response. I have culinary water, so it's clear. I don't think the line needs to be flushed, because our water pressure has gone down in general, inside as well as out. What's involved in flushing the lines? I may consider giving it a shot. I'm a little reluctant, if it's expensive, though, because the grass I'm planting is a native grass mixture and my plan is that I'll get a lawn that is so drought tolerant that it won't need to be watered even though it's desert conditions here. I don't understand what you mean by enough thrust between the trippers to activate the next cycle. The sprinkler system is run by an electrical timer, so the next cycle is done by a timer. If you're asking whether it flips the little switch that makes it change direction, that happens on one side but not the other. I replaced the head in the same place last year and it lasted less than a year. That's why I'm starting to think I don't have enough pressure at that location. Are there heads that turn more easily?

This is a great plant with those huge pink flowers that have just a hint of lavender. It's also called Diez en la Manana because its popular in the barrio areas of Mexico and the flowers close up about 10 am. Another name is Tree Morning Glory and as you might guess it grows pretty tall - here to about 8 - 10 feet - on woody stalks. Sometimes the shoots will die back as much as 2 -3 feet with cold weather but the plant grows back as soon as the weather warms again in the spring. The seeds are fuzzy and look like kitten toes - hence the name you're familiar with. Some nurseries carry this plant. Just google Ipomea carnea

Thanks Desertlvr. We have two citrus trees and the two outdoor cats actually sleep under them even though they hate my grapefruit lotion. Those two outdoor kitties are too feral to make indoor cats - especially this new one - we tried but he tried to maul our senior indoor cats. :/ Now he's only allowed in the kitchen through the kitty door. Someone mentioned on another board making a netted bag containing puffed rice doused with pure lemon/eucalyptus oils, and hung around the bad areas - I'm going to try that. (As ridiculous as it sounds!) Hi Lorna-Organic, Oh, we have *tried* bells! I went to the craft store and bought a bag of 100 multi-size bells and put a few on his collar - He still gets the birds! I don't know how he does it, but I've seen him walking around with all those bells and he doesn't make a sound. Stealthy bugger! I always wondered what was up with those ugly jugs on people's lawns! Thank you for informing me :) We are SO going to try that! However, I'm going to stick the jugs in some pots so we don't have to look at them ;) Maybe put some chicken wire over it too so that the birds don't try to drink it. I know whatcha mean about some cats being fine with birds. . . Our indoor cats love to *watch* birds, but wouldn't know the first thing about what to do with them. Our other outdoor cat was semi-feral, it took me a year, but I trained him not to attack the birds. (He never brought them in the kitchen to eat them though!) Now he cries when he wants to attack them and I tell him to go eat his food. He does! This new cat was abandoned, so he had to survive by eating birds, lizards, bugs, etc. until we found him. Hunting seems a habit though, because he's certainly well fed by us. We love him too much to get rid of him, so some solution has to be found. Maybe trying to train him, along with the bleach you recommended and some other deterrents. I really appreciate your ideas, thanks again :)