My sister has a new addition to the household

So my sister, all pleased with herself, just sent me photos of the new addition to her household.

WTF???

I do now have the answer, but you are welcome to try and guess what the buggery this thing actually is:

Kinda looks like a bear, but I think it's a dog, man.

Looks like a white shoe.

or

Looks like a cross between a bear, a fox and a dog. Very cute.. kind of.

It's a shoe!
Damn beaten to it!

OK it's a racoon.

Now why did I read "addiction"?

Wouldn't like to think about some of the cross breeding that has gone into this. Maybe that bear got some nookie in before they offed him.

So what is it?

[img]http://www.keithball.net/img/smileys/emot-iiam.gif[/img]

I dont think it is a Racoon...

IT'S FAKE ffs. Check out mine.

and what it did on my carpet earlier

Not so cute now eh?

Shut up. I need posts cause [img]http://www.keithball.net/img/smileys/emot-argh.gif[/img] kza [img]http://www.keithball.net/img/smileys/emot-argh.gif[/img] is kicking my arse.. so I'm running with this.

It's not a baby bear...

Could it be one of these perhaps?

Don't tell 'em yer name Pike.

I promise you 100% it is not fake. Exactly as she sent me this morning.

Woah, that cat-shark is freaky.

Ewoks do exist after all.

A baby doggy?!?!?!
[img]http://www.keithball.net/img/crap/phizzledog7eo.jpg[/img]

Looks like a very furry baby fox to me... Really cute animal I think...

Man, that's not bad, that's possessed!

With round ears?

A cross between a fox and a dog?

Ah, to hell with it. I've no idea what the fuck that is Mr. English, but here's a photo of our latest addition, still in the cage at the rescue centre when we picked her up. She is right now tearing our new sofa to pieces:

I takes up to 20 (mostly stolen) family pets and homeless cats and dogs to make one of those things.

aww.. cute. Clip her nails. You'll be thankful

dogs and foxes can't interbreed easily as they have a different number of chromosomes.

A Marten cub?

Clip her nails? Have you seen how fast one of those damn things moves? I've just decided to chase her into the bathroom and lock her in there for a few more months.

I'd like to see your abortive test results.

Grab her by the neck and she'll submit. Then pin her down and clip her nails. It sucks, because if she scratches you it'll burn like a bitch, but it's all worth it. Our furniture is completely ripped to shreds and it's all my fault for being too weak and lazy to do this. But I started doing it, and now her paws are so soft and gently.

She tells me that "she" is a mongrel cross between a chihuahua, toy poodle and a pomeranian.

I don't wanna try and figure how you cross three breeds at once, but I guess maybe I need to spend more time reading the Adult section of the forum for an answer.

Anyway another picture with my nephew. (nephew is the one with the freckles).

BOTH extremely cute!

Pomeranian. Next.

I might ask the vet to do it as I'm taking her in for a jab soon, and frankly I'm too gutless to chase her and pin her down. In fairness she's been pretty good so far, to the point that when she plays she does so without her claws out. I have a feeling that that will change though.

It is indeed a pomeranian puppy.

[img]http://www.keithball.net/img/smileys/emot-ms.gif[/img]

Just make it routine and they won't see it as punishment. It also helps if you massage her paws when she's cuddling.. makes them more comfortable when you cut the nails

Right. I'll massage her paws later, then pounce on her, pin her down, and cut her paws off. She'll be very comfortable with that I'm sure.

Seriously, do you just use nail clippers? And how much do i take off?

Hey IW - I was just kinda wondering what is like, at the end of the universe?

We got big rocks and planets and stuff everywhere you look, but obviously the concept of "infinity" is just silly, so what is really at the end of the universe?

Cut them as short as you can but watch out for the skin under the nails (the 'quick' I think it's called.) That will hurt like fuck if cut.

I'm too gutless for that - if i hurt her I would probably never forgive myself. I'm just gonna buy her those little plastic things you put over her claws.

Jimbo,
Forget the clipping her nails thing - buy her a cat tree with the scratching posts. It will become her (or his) favoriate place to sleep, scratch etc. But, what you have to do is get her to scratch the post and get her scent on the post so she will go back to it over and over again instead of using your furniture. Trust me, it works. We have a cat who has never (in 16 months) once used the furniture or anything else for sharpening her claws. She always uses her cat tree.

Holy shit. That thing is so cute it makes me sick.

A good question there JE. Personally I see the end of the universe as being inevitable also. Nothing lasts for ever.

So my guess is after the big bang where the universe is expanding due to the power of the initial explosion, there will be a big suck. Gravity will start pulling all the objects in the universe back together again, slowly all the galaxys and shit will slowly merge into one big lump in the middle.

So my guess is that at the end of the universe there will only be one thing left of it, which will be a big giant blob floating in nothing. It will look like one those bars of soap that old people have. You know the one where they have taken all the little bits of soap which are too small to use on their own and wedged them with other bits of similar sized soap so its a weird shaped mutlicoloured, slippery and pubic hair encrusted blob.

What happens to the blob, I dont know. Maybe it explodes again after too many things in the universe are compounding together?!?! And the process begins all over again?!?

We have a tree too, and we never see her scratch the furniture, but she still does, because it's all frayed and stuff. I don't clip her nails religiously, because she hates it and struggles to get away, but her soft paws are bliss.

Jimbo: they have special cat nail clippers that are easy to use. Regular ones work too. The quick is the part of the nail that's a bit pink. Cut above that and she won't feel anything, but might not like the noise. I say, start 'em early. That is, of course, unless she'll be in outdoor cat, in which case you shouldn't clip 'em so that she can protect herself.

OK, we have a small scratching post thing - but then she's only small herself - but we're thinking of upgrading to James Bond villain size of scratching post with small built-in house thing, in an effort to stop her scratching the furniture. I've only seen her scratching one or two things before fullstop - one of which is her post. She's only 10 or 11 weeks old though, so she's bound to get more vicious as time goes by. Her paws are very soft still, and yes, even a red-blooded male such as my goodself must admit - they're very cute.

She's gonna live outdoors a wee bit once she's older - we want her as a lap cat/indoor cat in the main, but a little bit of al fresco catness will be on the cards once she's been done in December. Have you seen these plastic claw 'caps' - they're out there somewhere - I saw 'em on TV. Bastard hard to put on I should think.

@ Jimbo - Another suggestion is to do the nail clipping while she's sleeping. If she's a lap kitty, then just let her fall asleep on you and go to work then. Easy Peasy. As for the scratching of the furniture, buy a water pistol and spray her whenever she scratches the furniture. Rub cat nip on the scratching post and that is sure to attrack her attention. Cats love cat nip...and it's damn funny to watch them once they are high on cat nip! Oh, and if she's going to be an outside kitty be sure not to clip the claws once she starts to venture outside (as MoiLV said), she'll need to claws for defense, climbing trees and killing kritters (that is if her natural instinct is still in tact), etc. Good luck...she's a cutie. What's her name anyhow?

Yes, like 'Lee Press On Nails' for cats. A friend had those for her cat but they fall off and they are hard to get on. We got our cat tree when she was a kitten and they learn quickly, really. Get her one that had toys attached and a place for her to curl up and put it somewhere that she can see outside. She will be in it constantly once she had her scent on it.

Once she is going outside, she'll need her claws for tree climbing and protecting herself in case she does run into something vicious. Also, cats need their claws for helping to clean (I've never seen our cat do that myself but I read it somewhere). Get the super-duper cat tree. It will work.

Thank you ladies - I feel like an honourary lady myself now. She's called 'Mia' Ms. Johnson and was the last of her litter to be left at the rescue home and we had to have her (I should point out that although I look after her, she automatically goes to Foxy and sleeps on her most evenings).

We've got some catnip spray, but sadly cats don't develop their love for catnip until about 6months old - no idea why, but that's what it says in something I read at some point...

Don't worry though - claws will be staying intact as I'm definitely hoping she'll be outside in the real world soon. I only hope she'll be OK - it's all quiet to the back of our house, but quite a busy road not too far to the front...

EDIT: Here's the scratch post:

I did not realise Porsche even made cat scratching posts. Then again they do make kitchen kettles so I should not be surprised really.

Matter of fact, this is Zorro, the fox-dog. He belongs to the hotel Scogs and I stayed at a couple of weeks ago.