I did the being edgy and self-deprecating thing, it gets old. I wanna be soft and lovely and easily impressed. I wanna appreciate all the little things that make me happy the same way I’ve dwelled on every single thing that upsets me.
24 hours after I brought her home, I got a mindblowing job offer. Since I adopted her nine years ago, my life has become an amusement park. She has brought me good luck ever since I took her into my home.
I’m telling you, there’s something about this animal. Good fortune follows her everywhere.
I don’t want to be selfish. I have everything I need and then some. So, I’m sharing her with you.
Reblog Brigitte and you’ll receive fantastic news in the next 24 hours.
And when you do, please remember to help your local SPCA and support them in the difficult work they do for wonder animals like Brigitte. Any donation helps your SPCA, even if it’s just five bucks.
Kitties like Brigitte are counting on you to give back when they bring you good luck.
Moving tip: the first thing you should bring into the new house is a roll of toilet paper. The second thing is drinking glasses or water bottles. The third thing is curtains or blinds. Then everything else.
Nope, router first. Otherwise agreed.
Router last. Otherwise this happens:
I’m on my 11th house in 23 years and here’s what should be in your “first” box:
Toilet roll,
Kettle,
Tea/coffee,
Mugs (enough for the number of people helping you to move),
A bottle opener (wine or beer at your discretion)
Disposable plates and cutlery (because the last thing you want to do once you’ve unpacked is wash up)
This was the system perfected by my parents who’ve lived in about 40 houses between them.
ADDITION:
When you get to your new place send someone out for milk for the teas and coffees also maybe biscuits.
Order takeaway your first night. I’m told in America the traditional moving dinner is pizza. We’ve always had a Chinese.
First Box: keep this box handy, pack it while you’re packing and put it in the truck LAST, or up in the front with you so you can get to it right away:
TP and toilet plunger. Hopefully you won’t need the plunger on the first night but it’d be AWFUL to have to look for it in case of emergency.
kette/coffee maker and necessary hot beverage supplies. Including Mugs. Caffeination is Key.
Your fave pan and spatula. You have one. You won’t use it the first night but I promise that you will NOT be done unpacking the kitchen stuff before you’re sick of takeout.
Duct Tape
Batteries
Cleaning supplies- paper towels, all-purpose cleaner, duster- houses get gross when left alone
Router, becuase we’re millenials and we’re going to be googling how to fix/turn on and assemble everything.
Enough bedding to cover your mattress while you sleep on it for the first few nights.
cell phone/laptop chargers
change of clothes, maybe two
If you have some kind of water filter that also fits in this box, bring that.
PURCHASE, FIRST NIGHT:
When you’re getting takeout, get the disposable plates/flatware/cups. Also get takeout sooner rather than later so you don’t collapse of hypoglycemia in the middle of unloading boxes like me, a moron.
I personally reccomend chinese.
If you’ve moved to an area where it’s not safe to drink the tap water unflitered and you’re a dummy like me that forgot to put your filter in the First Box, get enough bottled water to stay hydrated until you can get your filter set up.
milk, eggs, your preferred cooking fat, other meal/pantry staples.
Something fun like cookies or booze. You’ve had a tough day.
If you forgot the TP/batteries/duct tape/cleaning supplies, get those.
To Do Upon Arrival, even before unpacking:
Get there about an hour before the moving truck and do the following:
Re-check all the lights/taps/toilet/appliances/AC/Heater. Things might have happened and you’ll want to call the repair guy ASAP if something needs fixing.
Introduce yourself to your neighbors if they’re home. This will help prevent things like parking issues or noise complaints, there’s a good chance they’ll actually help, and if you’re REALLY lucky they’ll cook and you don’t have to get takeout.
Also if you do need to call a repair guy they probably know someone.
clean up any obvious messes before they get blocked by boxes.
Hydrate and have a snack before lifting.
DO NOT ATTEMPT ON DAY 1
Keep all pets and probably young children contained/boarded/at a friend or relative’s house until all the boxes and furniture is inside to prevent escape.
Hell, you’re probably exhausted. Leave them with grandma overnight.
Do Not Attempt to assemble disassembled furniture on day one. you will do it wrong and possibly slice your hand open with the allen wrench somehow and have to go to the urgent care
try not to go to the urgent care in general.
Don’t bother answering any email, texts, voicemails or nonemergency forms of communication. you’re busy. Possibly you are busy eating chinese and crying, but you are busy.
Exercise. you already did a ton of heavy lifting and cardio. don’t go jogging and pass out in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
Reccomended:
If you own the place or feel confident enough in your spackle and paint abilities to get your damage deposit back, put a nail in a wall and hang something up. It’s your space now.
If you don’t, hang something up with blue tac anyway. Still your space.
According to researchers, coordinated critics have mounted a “misinformation campaign designed to purposefully fabricate doubt regarding the harmful impacts of outdoor cats and stymie policies that would remove outdoor cats from the landscape.”
The conflict stems from a groundbreaking study published in 2013 by scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That study evaluated the combined impact of the tens of millions of outdoor cats in the United States. The authors found that roaming outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year and are the leading source of direct, human-caused mortality to birds in the country. Similar results have since been confirmed in Canada and Australia.
To those of you still in denial about how bad outdoor cats are to wildlife not just in your own countries but globally here’s the cold hard scientific facts stating that you are apart of a movement of uneducated critics spreading misinformation.
Here’s the link to the open-source scientific artificial as well:
but what about…. all the rats, mice etc they kill… hmmmmm
Maybe click the actual scientific research and read it before leaving a comment hmmmmm it would have saved you the embarrassment of proving the point of research. Which was that people that criticise keeping cats indoors were found to have zero actual evidence to back up their criticisms, therefore all their claims were based on nonsense or emotions.
Yikes! Think this is a good lesson in clicking links before you comment!
This study is going to cause so many ructions in the public…. buckle in, guys
You have not seen ructions in public until you’ve seen me tell a bunch of farmers to keep their barn cats indoors and encourage black snakes to take care of their Rodent probs because at least the snakes don’t spread toxoplasmosis.
Nobody does a ruction like a six foot plus dude who is secretly afraid a five foot snake will casually slither by and be all “sup”
Anyway here is my Chief Rodent Control Officer after taking a tithe of eggs which she does when there’s not enough rodents around
Yeah it’s not too hard to predict how that conversation will go:
You: You know those cats running around your property that won’t let a human touch them if their lives depended on it? You need to bring them all in the house.
Farmer: haha good one. You know they’d freak the hell out, right? Assuming that I could catch them and drag them in in the first place. And how am I supposed to control the rats if all my cats are inside?
You: Bring in a bunch of snakes and…
Farmer: haha go away now.
I love it when people assume I am not in fact a farmer myself. I’m a shepherd, with sheep. I don’t have barn cats because, among other reasons, cats spread toxoplasmosis. You know what toxo does? Probably not. You’re probably not dependent on small ruminants for any part of your livelihood.
Toxoplasmosis causes abortion in sheep and goats. Every ewe or doe who fails to lamb or kid is lost milk, lost meat, a lost replacement animal in the flock, lost cash from the sale of a new herd sire to someone else. When you have rare breed primitive sheep like I do, each lost pregnancy is also the entire breed slipping closer to the brink of disappearing.
You also appear to be unaware that there are live traps for catching the very feral barn cats - I’m SO glad someone who knows my profession, life, and attendant tools so well chimed in - we also use them to eg trap raccoons, foxes, and possums who are predating small livestock like chickens and rabbits. Incidentally, did you know cats can shed salmonella which can go on to infect your chickens? Why are you raising your own chickens for eggs and meat if you’re just going to get the same salmonella roulette you could get at the grocery store without all the goddamned work?
Chickens will also eat mice and young rats, incidentally. If you’ve got an honest to God adult rat infestation in your barn your husbandry practices are fucked up six ways from Sunday and you need to build better feed containers before you do anything else. The country isn’t the city. We do a lot more mice here.
You could of course also get yourself a nice working terrier and while you’re doing chores let the dog go to town on the rodent population.
Because if you actually have barn cats you can’t get near, they’re serving as a potential reservoir for rabies (which will pass to any mammal including you, including cattle), feline distemper, toxo, salmonella, and a host of parasites starting with coccidia and running out to various worms that don’t much care if they infect a barn cat or, yknow, a pregnant cow worth $2000.
So no, actually, that’s generally not how the conversation goes. But thanks for chiming in, city kid, assuming I was not in fact a working shepherd.
