I have had for years at least 1 or 2 barn cats. Last year, one female had a litter of 4 kittens. One day the mother & one kitten was missing. The next day, another kitten was missing. I was starting to worry that someone was coming around when I wasn't home taking the cats. Then when I was in the store, someone mentioned that the family down the road was complaining about the old barn behind their house because feral cats were coming to their house. I decided to stop at the house and see if that "feral cat" was my missing mom. Sure enough, the mother cat, had been over there, and the people just assumed she was wild and brought her inside and fed her. I guess she liked their food better, or the fact that she was inside, because she then brought her kitten over, and the next day, brought the 2nd kitten over. So now that these people know I am the owner of the cats, they said they were attached to the one kitten, and I could take the mother home. (the other kitten was killed by their dog). I told her that I will take the cat, but since she is a barn cat, and they have her kitten and were feeding her, she will probalby come back. Sure enough, the next day the mother cat is gone, and back over at their house, inside again. They call me up and start yelling at me to get that cat back to my house. This is in the country with farms all around, and I have always had barn cats to keep the rodents out of the horse barn. Anyway, I try to explain to her, that the cats had a cat door in the barn so they can come and go as they please, and that I cannot keep her locked up, and not to feed her. then, she says to me, indignatly, "then I'll keep her". I said, fine. Back to my original thought, that the cat, since it disappears for days at a time, may belong to someone, not be feral. If you continue to feed it, it will become yours. The fact that it come over with a ribbon on it, shows that it is getting attention somewhere else as well. M

Yes, I'm blessed with dirt/dust storms too. Last year I had a 70 mph plus wind rip thru here busting trees and taking the roof and trusses off what I call the lake house by the pond. Some EPA official that had never been to AZ said he was going to fix the dust problem a couple years ago. I expected to see 10's of thousands of water trucks descending on the state and driving all over the desert sprinkling water on the ground everyday but for some unexplained reason it never happened.

I can tell you for a fact that not only can you grow jades in LI, you can grow almost anything with a little know-how and effort. And you are a testament to that. Gritty mixes are great! You can pick up Turface at a spot in Lindenhurst on Sunrise Hwy. By the way, your photo looks like Kalanchoe marmorata. Link to slideshow of some of my plants, growing in Long Island, NY This post was edited by xerophyte_nyc on Thu, Apr 25, 13 at 19:58

We have one neutered and one intact male dog. They are both adopted and neither of them mark in the house. Our one boy had a bladder infection and had accidents during the night all over the rug and we haven't had any problems with either marking (of course we cleaned it, my steam cleaner is my fave purchase ever!) Our one boy even pooed on our kitchen floor (we just adopted him and he was scared of the wind and didn't want to go outside, poor thing) and our other boy didn't mark on it, which happens ALL the time outside. I was told it is a habit and if they don't do it now then they wouldn't do it with different dogs in the house. We also set up a trial period because we had another dog and wanted to make sure they would get along well. The adoption agency was very nice about this. I told the foster about our dog and asked if the second dog would be a good fit for us and she said he would and she was right! I do agree with it being breed specific though. If the dog is being fostered ask the caregiver what he/she thinks. I also adopted our two boys through petfinder. I LOOOOOVE that site. It is so wonderful! -renee