Bits and pieces

[thistlechaser]

First off, this is such a cute, sweet commercial! When I saw it on TV, I had to rewind and watch it again!

Secondly, a person on my flist had to travel to Canada for work, and hearing what city she was staying in (St. John's) made me remember a wonderful song! Unfortunately Youtube and such only have live versions of it (for copyright reasons, I'm sure), so I had to upload it myself (for RP reasons, but I can share here as well!).

Boston and (that city mentioned above) -- not using the exact name to hopefully keep searches from finding this post. I love that group so much, I dug out all my CDs and I'm listening to it all again.

Thirdly, more RP tonight, eeeeee! RP is the bestest thing ever.

Lastly, with all the Song of Fire and Ice promos coming out, I keep getting the theme of it crossed with the book series I'm currently reading (The Curse of Chalion). Mmmm, it's so nice when you have such wonderful books to read!

Comments

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

The commercial is interesting. Overall I find it a bit manipulative but it is good advertising.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It really worked because there was no dialogue (or even indication of the product*) until the end. That caught my attention strongly, and I had to rewind to figure out what the heck they were doing.

Agreed that it was a manipulative, but I'm fine with that from advertisements.

* It wasn't until the end that I realized the white fluffy cat is kind of associated with that brand of food, so I should have guessed earlier on what it was a commercial for.

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

Yes I expect ads to be manipulative and this one did it well. I also view it as my job to call them on it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Makes perfect sense!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

GBS is vunderbar. And... Turns out I don't have that one. Ha HA! Thank you.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'm glad to have been able to fill in a hole! It's one of my favorites of theirs. :D

[kriatyrr.livejournal.com]

I have to call that commercial out on another point:
You should never go ahead and get a pet without a word to your (even potential) co-owner. Yes, she was absolutely enchanted by one fluffy white kitty - doesn't mean that fluffy and white would be her first choice in a cat of her own. Me, I squee over any cat. But I have certain preferences when it comes to choosing a cat I'll have in my life for possibly a decade or two.

It is also objectifying the cat as a gift to her and not as a living, feeling creature. If you love her, bring her to the shelter and pick out a kitty together!
And a man taking a decision out of a woman's hands, behind her back, is just.. gah. No.

(Thanks for reminding me of the song - hadn't heard it for years. Saved myself the download and found it on Spotify instead though. Added to this month's playlist)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ack, very good point! I was so taken with the romance of it (unusual for me!) that I totally missed that part.

And welcome! Glad you liked the song.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Wait a second...who's hand is grabbing the Fancy Feast?! They are wearing pink nail polish so I would think it was the women but then it's the man who brings out the Fancy Feast cause she's playing with the kitten! CONTINUITY ISSUES!!!

That's a large amount of work done on that Kitty room for sure. I also like the wall stairs that lead up to the top for the cat to jump up, nice touch.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Who's to say the man couldn't be wearing pink nail polish?!

And yes, I totally love the room! I've seen those wall stairs before, they're a great idea.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Well, that and it was clearly a females hand. Or just a guy with REALLY feminine hands who also happens to enjoy pink nail polish.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Good sir, are you implying there's something wrong with a man having feminine hands? Or a woman having manly hands? Or someone stalking people and cutting off their hands?

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Of course not! Without the disembodied hand market the economy would have crashed back in 1998!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

There we go! Now you're cooking with gas!

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

...

*looks up American Idioms*

Ahhh. I get it now.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I've been googling, looking for where I first found that. I think it was used in a cartoon, but I can't find which one. Anyway, it amuses me to use it now! It's so old (and apparently confusing to Canadians!).

[bricriu.livejournal.com]

XD Our cats (and dogs) have been on raw for so long that if they get offered "cat food", canned or kibble, they all just kind of go /earsback /deathglare, except for the middle one who gets this sad, confused, "Where's my food? You said there was food! Where's the food?!?" look.

Sometimes I'll bring home a free kibble sample bag just to mess with them.

Me: Guys! I have foooood!
Cats: FOOOOOD YAYAYAYAYAYAY FOODTREATS GIVE THE--
Me: *holds out bag*
Cats: >:|

Of course, I always feel bad in the end, so I dig out something for them to eat. They fall for that trick every time though.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's totally understandable. I wouldn't ever feed my animals store-brands. (Eh, except Ellie New Cat, because that's what she was eating before I got her. I bought a bag to ease her into some better quality food, but it's taking forever to use it up. x.x ) Most catfood brands are such junk...

[bricriu.livejournal.com]

TBH, anything with grain in it is pretty junk for an obligate carnivore. :D

We started with raw due to our now late cat (she died at almost 22 a couple years ago) and her stupidly severe allergies.

She'd been on prednisone and allergy foods for most of her life but, at 13, was so miserable and unhappy that we were considering having her put down. Even Z/D Ultra or "allergy formula" premium foods made her sick (usually bloody IBS sick), and the meds made her all bloaty and lazy. She even hated being pet as it was uncomfortable, and her coat?
So ew, dull, flaky and she shed a lot.

We got our first dog around that time, and I decided I wanted to raise him on raw food. Wife did not like the idea, so I told her I'd deal with feeding the dog so she didn't have to touch the raw ickies.

Kind of as a last ditch, "Okay, if this doesn't work, we'll have her put down..." effort for the cat, we switched her to raw food as well.

Within a day or two, she was improving energy wise, and within 3 months she looked like an entirely different cat and was off her meds entirely.

Through process of elimination, we found anything "starchy" triggered her allergies, which is why none of the foods worked (most allergy foods use potato as a base). She was also allergic to certain meats AND it mattered what the meat was fed.

Grain fed animals triggered the reaction in her, but grass fed or feed-free chicken meat? No problem.
Even eggs from grain feed fed chickens were no good for her. :\
She was also allergic to pork, turkey, venison, flax and alfalfa.
Or, to summarize, she was kind of a pain in the ass to feed.

Thankfully, small cat = not much for eating, so it wasn't too expensive to buy her local, not-grain fed meats and whatnot.

My favorite part was when her vet asked what we'd done to turn her health around though: We told her, and the vet told us what we were doing was 'animal abuse' and that we'd kill her by feeding her raw food. /eyeroll

That cat, really, is my main reason for never wanting to switch back to processed food again; she was so miserable for so long because nobody ever suggested that we maybe feed her...y'know, food. :\

After awhile, we switched from "frankenprey" (many parts to simulate a whole, with pulped vegetables for fiber) to mostly whole prey. We tend to order day old chicks, fuzzy mice and rabbits* from rodentpro.com and deer season?
Oh god, that nets about 8 months worth of meat, bone and hide on parts (for the dogs, mostly). Right now, our back yard looks like a boneyard.

When fishing is in season, we get a lot of the leftovers after filleting, which they all love as well.


...at our house, "popcorn" means "a hand full of hopper mice". Everyone comes running if I ask if someone wants popcorn. :D

Heh, we call the whole prey unprocessed kibble.
It's somewhat scary to watch a 6lb cat go through a rabbit's skull like it was half melted butter.


That all aside, it's certainly not a feeding method that everyone can afford or wants to deal with, and in those cases, I just encourage them to read ingredients on bags and not do the, "But my vet said it was good!" 'cause, well, vets get paid quite a bit to sell certain brands of food so of course they'll push what their clinic has in stock.


* Pre-killed, obviously.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

We told her, and the vet told us what we were doing was 'animal abuse' and that we'd kill her by feeding her raw food.

... o.O Because clearly she was so much worse off on that diet?

And poor kitty! She was lucky to have such a good owner. :D

I don't think I could handle feeding a diet like that (I'd be sniffling endlessly!), but I agree on reading ingredients! And I love my vet, too. She never pushes brands or meds or anything, she just suggests what not to use (store brand food or the major supermarket sold brands).

[bricriu.livejournal.com]

At first I was kind of squeamish about it, and when we first did whole prey?

Oh god, I had to cut the chicks open to show everyone that there was "food inside the wrapper", so to speak, and...there was air still left in the lungs so when I put the knife in to cut it open, it PEEPED! D:>

Wife thought my reaction of, "OHGOD IT PEEPED WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?" was hilarious.
Now, I think so as well, but at the time I had the irrational (as they come shipped frozen solid in dry ice) idea that HOLY SHIT IT WASN'T REALLY DEAD WHAT HAVE I JUST DONE?!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! Oh god, I'd think the same! Poor you. :D