Help end medical misogyny. Sign our petition.

Help end medical misogyny.
Sign our petition.

Sign the petition

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The Gerbil World Cup at the Bluestocking!

999 replies

Magpiecomplex · 14/06/2026 15:00

New thread.

No pushing at the back, please, we have plenty of scones and kilts for everyone.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
95
ErrolTheDragon · 22/06/2026 23:33

The dogs we’ve had both loved fish. When we had something like salmon they’d wolf down the skins, which made their coats extra shiny.

EmpressaurusKitty · 23/06/2026 04:03

Not sure if it’s the same storm or a different one but a mammoth rumble of thunder about 20 mins ago woke me up in West London.

The thunder was so loud & the lightning so frequent that I think it was right over us, though it seems to be moving on now, & the rain was coming down as if it was being poured out of a huge bucket. Kitty’s a bit unnerved but then she’s not keen on fireworks either.

Magpiecomplex · 23/06/2026 07:14

EmpressaurusKitty · 23/06/2026 04:03

Not sure if it’s the same storm or a different one but a mammoth rumble of thunder about 20 mins ago woke me up in West London.

The thunder was so loud & the lightning so frequent that I think it was right over us, though it seems to be moving on now, & the rain was coming down as if it was being poured out of a huge bucket. Kitty’s a bit unnerved but then she’s not keen on fireworks either.

Edited

We had one at 5 this morning in west Kent. Carefully timed to wake me up without enough time to get back to sleep before my alarm went off. 🥱

OP posts:
EmpressaurusKitty · 23/06/2026 07:23

Magpiecomplex · 23/06/2026 07:14

We had one at 5 this morning in west Kent. Carefully timed to wake me up without enough time to get back to sleep before my alarm went off. 🥱

Naturally. Sun & rain here now so I’m looking out for rainbows.

EdithStourton · 23/06/2026 07:39

DH reports that it chucked it down here at about 4am, but I slept through it.

B&B love fish. Left over fish and chips is apparently the food of the gods. We always save fish skin and the oil from tins of tuna for them.

DeanElderberry · 23/06/2026 08:00

Yet again I grouch that few years ago there was, in the newspapers and online, a flurry of warnings about 'whisker stress' and the absolute necessity of using flat feeding plates to save ones feline friends from this horror, so I bought flat plates (in the charity shop, eccentric and suggestible but not mad), but now what it's hot, do the aforementioned feline friends use their nice big water bowl to drink from, or do they stuff their furry faces, whiskers and all, into my bedside water glass?

ffs ffs

morning all

FuzzyPuffling · 23/06/2026 08:08

DeanElderberry · 23/06/2026 08:00

Yet again I grouch that few years ago there was, in the newspapers and online, a flurry of warnings about 'whisker stress' and the absolute necessity of using flat feeding plates to save ones feline friends from this horror, so I bought flat plates (in the charity shop, eccentric and suggestible but not mad), but now what it's hot, do the aforementioned feline friends use their nice big water bowl to drink from, or do they stuff their furry faces, whiskers and all, into my bedside water glass?

ffs ffs

morning all

Yes. Just yes.

Although ours like a shallow birdbath of rainwater in the garden ( known as the "Cat and Hedgehog") in preference to clean water in a much nicer bowl indoors.

EmpressaurusKitty · 23/06/2026 08:18

I got Kitty a fountain, but she prefers the watering can or the drips off my shower mat. And for quite a while she would only drink from a plastic jug.

The fountain’s back in the cupboard & now we compromise on a ceramic cat bowl.

RumNotRun · 23/06/2026 08:27

I always give Toad a bowl of water on the work surface as he doesn't like sharing his water with the other cats. I did that yesterday, using his Lil Bub bowl, he ignored it and started drinking the water from some mugs in the sink.

MyrtleLion · 23/06/2026 09:10

Woke this morning to an ambulance outside. We live directly opposite an MOT garage at the bottom of a hill. A lot of cars and bikes come flying down the hill and have been hit by cars turning into the garage. Our neighbours rush over with blankets and pillows. Which is weird because the living areas are at the back of the house so you can only see the road if you’re in the bedroom or the kitchen. I always wonder how they see the incident when we only see it 15 minutes after it’s happened.

Anyway a woman was being put into an ambulance and two sets of neighbours had brought pillows and cushions and blankets. We wonder if she was a pedestrian and was hit by someone turning into the garage.

This is the third incident in less than a year. Fortunately we have a 20mph limit, though I’m sure plenty of drivers flout it, so no one has been seriously hurt that we’ve seen.

DauntlessDamson · 23/06/2026 09:29

DeanElderberry · 23/06/2026 08:00

Yet again I grouch that few years ago there was, in the newspapers and online, a flurry of warnings about 'whisker stress' and the absolute necessity of using flat feeding plates to save ones feline friends from this horror, so I bought flat plates (in the charity shop, eccentric and suggestible but not mad), but now what it's hot, do the aforementioned feline friends use their nice big water bowl to drink from, or do they stuff their furry faces, whiskers and all, into my bedside water glass?

ffs ffs

morning all

😂😂😂🐈

FuzzyPuffling · 23/06/2026 09:34

I bought some flat metal cat food plates from amazon a good while ago. The cats seem to be happy with them ( although the biscuits must go separately in the pink plastic bowl) and they certainly fit in the dish draining rack very well. Small wins.

ErrolTheDragon · 23/06/2026 09:49

Our last dog would very rarely drink from his bowl inside, preferring water from the barrel ponds or any collected elsewhere. He’d drink tap water outside from the dish put out for the birds though. Which reminds me I’d better refill it now!

DH woke me not long after 6am as he was awake and I’ve said he can on sunny mornings so we can get out early - this hasn’t happened too often but we managed it today so we’ve had a nice 5km walk around the local park, which has a shady lime avenue. Fervent thanks to our foresighted forebears who planted trees! Met some nice dogs too. Just having my morning coffee and then get out to do some gardening. It’s not quite as hot as further south, no storms here.

FuzzyPuffling · 23/06/2026 09:56

Its very hot here already. I wish the cats would come in, it's much cooler indoors. I have to remind myself of cats African ancestry and trust they know best. They have sought out shady spots at least.

FuzzyPuffling · 23/06/2026 10:06

Anyone in the - ahem- older age group been checked up on by their friends or neighbours as recommended?

MarieDeGournay · 23/06/2026 10:11

Morning all, and morning to all your entertaining animal family members - I've never had pets [we moved around quite a bit when I was a kid, and were often in housing that wasn't pet-friendly] and so I didn't realise they were such amusing little people, who obviously take pleasure in reading articles about 'whisker stress' and 'flat plates are essential', and then doing the exact opposite.

In fact, now I think about it, it seems likely that cats invented the concept of 'whisker stress', placed stories in the veterinary press, and are now laughing their whiskers off as they drink from their 'owners' glasses and mugs😂

And dogs went along with it, presumably cos they too enjoy seeing that FFS look on their human's facesSmile

Deano, I want 'eccentric and suggestible but not mad' on a t-shirtGrin

That storm in the south of England etc looks spectacular, and scary.
When I left that part of the world some time ago, the summers were already getting very hot, and I remember saying that London would become unbearable to the point of unworkable if it got much hotter. I thought it would take longer..

In France there's a big debate about air-conditioning: it appears to be the only way to make cities liveable-in and workable-in, but of course it adds to the problem, both in terms of energy consumption, and moving heat from inside to outside doesn't help the outside does it? Confused

Myrtle, it must be upsetting and disconcerting to see ambulances outside and wonder what has happened - I hope the accident was a minor one this timeFlowers
Managing to keep up the number of accidents when it's a 20mph zone takes a special kind of stupidity dangerous road use, doesn't it?😠

I'm avoiding the very thought of dogs eating fish - cats eat fish, not dogs. Irrefutable scientific proof - Tom, Sylvester, Felix, they all ate fish, right? Pluto, Huckleberry Hound, Snoopy, they did not eat fish.
QED. I rest my case.😄

Thehorticulturalhussie · 23/06/2026 10:18

Morning all
Very hot here in W Dorset, no storm. Very windy though.
Dogs love fish, well all of ours have. I buy mackerel in oil for Hunter as a treat and it's definitely a favourite but he'll eat any and all seafood. And eggs in any state but preferably raw.
This week's bit of awesomeness has been all 3 of our swallow nests fledging yesterday so for a few hours we had 12 beautiful baby birds learning to fly outside the kitchen window, sliding down the car roof, peering into windows and narrowly avoiding various objects. But today they are flying aces, swooping around squeaking with excitement and going much further away from the house. In 3 months they will fly to Africa whereas human babies at 4 months? Complete rubbish by comparison.

I had a very early (for me) walk with the dog, and saw quail which is really unusual, so bar gerbils would you kindly make me a quadruple espresso before I venture into the greenhouse to do some watering. Thank you

MarieDeGournay · 23/06/2026 10:18

BTW I had to make about five attempts to spell 'veterinary' correctly!😒

It's one of those words I've never looked at properly, and never wrote down before, so I started from something that sounded like 'vet-in-ry' and ended up having to google it.
'veterinary' looks nothing like 'vet-in-ry', does it? Have I been saying it wrong all these years [to the extent that I've ever said the word]?
Does anybody actually say 'vet-er-in-ary'??

edited to say that I should have started this off with an announcement over the PA system:
PEDANTS TO PEDANTRY CORNER PLEASE! PEDANTS TO PEDANTRY CORNER PLEASE!😄

EmpressaurusKitty · 23/06/2026 11:01

I love that about the swallows, @Thehorticulturalhussie.

It’s just about right here at the moment, although I don’t know how long that’s going to last now it’s stopped raining. Kitty’s pondering going out.

Chickadeeinme · 23/06/2026 11:12

We had a thunderstorm here briefly yesterday, but luckily not at the World Cup Norway v Senegal match where my sons were. Too blurry to be outing, so here they are on a screenshot DS2’s BIL sent.

The Gerbil World Cup at the Bluestocking!
ErrolTheDragon · 23/06/2026 12:09

I’ve potted up some seedlings, put some laundry out and now having an iced decaf latte in the relative cool of the kitchen.
Plunged some more seedlings in a tub of water, cosmos which badly need planting out.

EmpressaurusKitty · 23/06/2026 13:02

I’m having a quick drink before getting back to work, Kitty’s asleep in a shady spot on the balcony & the blanket is still in one piece.

AsWithGlad · 23/06/2026 13:22

FuzzyPuffling · 23/06/2026 10:06

Anyone in the - ahem- older age group been checked up on by their friends or neighbours as recommended?

I’m probably in that age group, but so are several of our neighbours. DH and I have conversed today, does that count?

Last night I worked for a few hours at the start of an expensive black tie event, mostly outdoors, with over 2000 people attending. It started to rain heavily at about 8pm, while most people were queuing to get in. This wasn’t expected by anyone that I knew of. The venue probably had several hundred umbrellas, but not enough. The guests would have been wet through for the rest of the event, which ends at 5-6am.

My area was undercover.

Several people can probably guess where I was, but the MN tradition is for anonymity, so let’s not speculate. Out again tonight. Last night I was headhunted to work on Thursday, too 😀, having just declined Friday.

I didn’t get to enjoy the storm later: although I was woken by it I went straight back to sleep. The BBC has some good pictures of lightning.

EdithStourton · 23/06/2026 13:23

We had thunder this morning, and one of those half smiling innocence/ half Sky of Doom affairs. I checked the wind direction and hung the washing. So far, so good.

The late lamented Barky was a connoisseur of puddles, ponds and streams. He had his favourite puddles, and they appeared he have a good glug. Brains likes ditchwater. One of her favourite spots looks rank and foetid, but every time we walk past, she's straight down into the very deep ditch.

AsWithGlad · 23/06/2026 13:24

The window cleaner is here, so we’ve just closed all the windows. It’s interesting how quickly the atmosphere has become stuffy.

Swipe left for the next trending thread