Ambition

Tim's tail was twitching...

Friday cat blogging

Tommie

Tim (originally Timid)

Dude

Jellico

Supper with PuddyTat and Tom. She hasn't appeared yet today so she didn't get her mug here. The annex was tipped over this morning. She may have been in or on it and is still spooked.

Friday shuffle

1. Summer in the City - Lovin' Spoonful
2. Get Up John - Ricky Skaggs
3. Live Here With You - Dusty Springfield
4. PDQ Bach: Capriccio La Pucelle de New Orleans
5. We Shall Walk Through the Valley - Brunelle, Vocal Essence
6. Arlen: Out of This World - Chanticleer
7. Paulus: Mass for a Sacred Place, Sanctus - Cathedral Choral Society
8. Earth Angel - Penguins
9. Save the Last Dance for Me - Drifters
10. In Old Mexico - Tom Lehrer

Poison dry cat food

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Franklin, Tennessee (May 21, 2009) -- Today, Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten additional countries. This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO® dry cat food.

This issue was identified during an audit of our documentation from the supplier. An extensive review confirmed that only these two premixes were affected. This recall does not affect any NUTRO® dog food products, wet dog or cat food, or dog and cat treats.

Affected product was distributed to retail customers in all 50 states, as well as to customers in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Israel. We are working with all of our distributors and retail customers, in both the US and internationally, to ensure that the recalled products are not on store shelves. These products should not be sold or distributed further.

Consumers who have purchased affected product should immediately discontinue feeding the product to their cats, and switch to another product with a balanced nutritional profile. While we have received no consumer complaints related to this issue, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, please contact your veterinarian.

Consumers who have purchased product affected by this voluntary recall should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® dry cat food product. Cat owners who have questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 between the hours 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM CST, or visit www.nutroproducts. com.

Recalled Pet Food

The varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods listed below with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010 are affected by this voluntary recall.

To see exactly what varieties of Nutro cat food is recalled go to Just Another Black Sheep.

Dear President Obama,

Dear President Obama,

Yet another excellent military person has been fired because he is gay. He is a highly decorated Air Force pilot, Lt Colonel Victor Fehrenbach, who is two years short of retirement. That is cruel and stupid. Firing those who speak languages needed in the Middle East is equally thoughtless. Firing military people who are functioning well in their positions simply because of their sexual orientation demonstrates that sex is more important than national security to those who make the rules.

Certain religious groups are saying that LGBT people are not created in God’s image and do not deserve the rights and responsibilities everyone else has. This is fear talking. Fear that LGBTs will somehow cause them harm is ridiculous, unfounded and destructive. If those who believe that this is a Christian nation actually followed what Jesus taught, we would not need unconstitutional laws such as DADT and DOMA.

When are you going to tell the military brass that they are simply prejudiced, wrong about lesbian and gay people in the armed services and harming our ability to protect the US? When will you order the suspension of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"?

Thank you for your prompt action to remove this serious flaw in our military preparedness.


cc: Sen. Arlen Specter, Sen. Robert Casey, Jr., Rep. Kathleen Dahlkamper

Five steps to being miserable

HT to Elizabeth.

Hallelujah! A new Liturgical Mystery!

Those of us who are devoted fans of Mark Schweizer's Liturgical Mysteries feared that the series had stopped after the first six were issued in a boxed set. Now today I went to St James Music Press Books to copy the URL for a blog comment. Lo and behold, there is a new mystery - The Diva Wore Diamonds. Oh joy, oh rapture. Can't wait.

This makes me sooooo angry

And yet more prayers requested

Please go to FranIAm's blog or Grandmère Mimi's blog for the latest additions to the prayer list. You'll have to scroll down a bit for those. Sorry, I'm lazy tonight.

Beating the Bounds on Rogation Sunday

After the service a group of Christ Church people braved a bitterly cold wind and beat the bounds of the church. We did not use boys and we didn't actually beat anything else.

We began on the steps with a prayer:
God of seed and growth and harvest, creator of need, creator of satisfaction, give us, we pray, our daily bread, sufficient and assured for all. Give us also, we pray, the bread of life, and we shall have a care to feed the hungry, and to seek for peace and justice in the world. Help us, then, to remember and to know that you are our life today and every day; you are the food we need, now and for ever. Amen.

We then walked to the first corner singing For the Beauty of the Earth (not us). At the first corner, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 was read followed by a prayer:
God of creation, we thank you for the gift of the earth, and for the life which teems upon the land, in the waters, and in the air. Thank you for the wonder of life that you have entrusted to us in all its complexity, interconnectedness and biodiversity. Help us to conserve it well, use it sustainably, and endow it faithfully to our children's children.

We sang the first three verses to Canticle of the Sun (H86 406) on the way to the second corner. We then prayed:
Lord God, from your hand comes the mystery of life: the wonder of fertility, growth and harvest, and resistance to disease. We thank you for the gift of seed; bless the seeds we sow in our farms, allotments and gardens, that they may germinate well, flourish, and yield blessing to your children. Bless our efforts to feed others and ourselves.

We finished Canticle of the Sun as we walked up the alley and around the corner.
Lord God, from your hand comes all that nourishes life. We thank you for the gift of soil. Bless the soil in which our seeds are sown and our crops are planted; bless our efforts to use it well, to enrich it, and to sustain its fertility for the future.

We sang the first two verses of All Things Bright and Beautiful (very obviously not us) on the way to the final corner of the church property. Ezekiel 34:25-31 was read followed by:
Lord God, your rain is the most precious liquid on earth. We thank you for the gift of water. Bless our land and our crops with rain; bless our efforts to keep water unpolluted, to make it accessible, and to conserve it responsibly.
We finished All Things Bright and Beautiful on the way back to the church. The final prayer:
Almighty God, whose will it is that the earth and the sea should bear fruit in due season: bless the labors of those who work on land and sea, grant us a good harvest and the grace always to rejoice in your fatherly care; through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord.

Inside we received the blessing then sang An Irish Blessing before the dismissal.