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

The grocery store minis are regular roses but the companies that produce them just don't always bother to register them. They do list names on their web sites but they're also known for interchanging those names with several different roses. So if a place orders a gross of pink minis named Pinkie they may get any one of a half dozen different pink roses the company has available at the time to fill the order. Sometimes if the rose is very distinctive you can match them up but if it's just a pink rose you probably will never know which one it is. And you have to be sort of careful because I have gotten a couple that turned out not to be minis after all. They were small when I got them as little potted cuttings but when planted grew to be floribunda size blooms in the end.

Marg, The seeds for the reds I got from a trade. They are still quite small, and if they make it through this winter, I'll be surprised. I'll be keeping them in the holding bed over the winter with a good mulch. Since I got them from a trade, I'm waiting to see if they come true to put them in the ground so it might be next year by the time I do that. I'm surprised that your Buddleias don't make it. Do you wait long enough to determine they haven't made it through? Mine sometimes only surface in early June, but then they catch-up quickly. They are late risers. Bonnie, I instinctively knew I had that zonal thing wrong, but went against my better judgement. :O) Thanks for the correction. Appreciate it! My tops die back too, but last year one didn't. I let it grow. It went to 12 to 14 feet and was HUGE. But that's the last time I won't trim back. Out of 4 mature ones I have, it's THE one that died this past winter. One which is only 1.5 feet away is doing fine. Sorry to hear that you lost yours this past winter. I'll definitely have some seeds of the lavender if you want some. You too Marg! Would be nice to get seeds of that new one - you know the bi-colored one?!

Dr. Manners, went back and did more reading on the biosynthesis of anthocyanins, and you are indeed correct. Although the components that produce the end product - anthocyanin are of course transported to the site (pulp and peel for citrus), they are "assembled" for lack of a better word, on site in the vacuoles of the cell where the pigment is displayed. Actually, (shockingly?), Wikipedia has a very nice synopsis of the biosynthesis of anthocyanin, and the entry is well-referenced. Now, that all being said, my biochemistry is OLD (can we say 1980?), so pretty rusty, but yes, you're quite correct - happens in the peel and pulp, and the anthocyanin can travel to the pulp from the peel, even after picking. And since there are several enzymes responsible for the creation of anthocyanin, there can be any number of genetic or environmental factors which can affect anthocyanin synthesis. So, some years you may get very pigmented oranges, and other years, not so much, even from a tree with good anthocyanin "genes". What I found very interesting as an aside, is that pretty reddish tint you see in a rose's new growth is caused by juvenile anthocyanin. I wonder where it goes though, after the leaves mature and turn green? Or does it NOT go anywhere, but is "overruled" by chlorophyll?? Travel to the red petals of the flower (red/dark pink roses have much redder new leaves). Guess that's another topic for another forum, lol!! I will always defer to your expertise, I am no biochemist for sure!! Patty S.