Floomp (floofinition) – 1. A balled clump of animal hair or fur found on clothing, towels, and bedding after they’ve been washed.
In use: “Going to put on a pair of socks, Brenda discovered floomps on their bottoms, which she meticulously pulled off as her cat and dog came up, sat down, and watched. She would swear that her pets were smirking as they watched.”
2. A wave or heavy impact caused by an animal landing on a person, bed, or bouncy objects.
In use: ‘The little dog leaped up, landing on her with a floomp which made her say, “Oof. Not on the nipple, please. Why do you always land on my nipples?”‘
Floofpressant – (floofinition) – Non-violent action, behavior, or noise employed to stop an animal or dissuade it from continuing unwanted activity.
In use: “A squirt gun didn’t bother long-haired Quinn, as water couldn’t seem to penetrate his coat, but he had a sharp sense of smell, and they soon learned that a good floofpressant for bad behavior was any citrus fruit, or a banana.”
This is it, the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving in the U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a Congressional proclamation declaring this is what we were going to do as a nation going forward. Before that, Thanksgiving was all over the place, sort of like Elon Musk and Twitter, an agent of chaos and close to unpredictable.
It’s November 24, 2022. Feels like spring is visiting autumn outside. Recognizing sunshine, the cats wanted out immediately. Their eagerness was rewarded by calm air hovering around 56 F on its way to a 65 F high. Gadzooks, what a treat. Sunshine invaded at a little before the 7:12 AM sunrise. Sunshine will hang out until 4:43 PM.
Thanksgiving is a day of deep planning for many families. Traditions are observed, new ones established. Martyrs are born as people go to extremes to satisfy their Thanksgiving commitments. Warnings are a newer Thanksgiving tradition as people point out which foods are vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, or contains eggs, dairy, or nuts. Mom and my sisters do Thanksgiving up, going over-the-top with their food. There’s turkey with stuffing and all the American food staples associated with that through the years of Thanksgiving, but also pasta dishes to honor the Italian side. Dessert and treats? My god, yes. Apple pie, and pumpkin, along with cookies, pretzels and chips, cheese trays with crackers and bread, relish trays, and, yes, cake and cheesecake. Leftovers are eaten for a week. Some things are frozen and eaten later in the year.
My wife and I celebrate Friendsgiving with a group. We’ve been doing this for a while and it’s become our Ashland tradition. I’m looking forward to it, as friends that I’ve not seen in months will be there. I enjoy their company and catching up with their news.
A friend of ours is breaking her tradition this year. She loves Thanksgiving and plays hostess to her extended family every year. This year, though, her newly married son invited her and hubby to his in-laws’ Thanksgiving celebration, an enthusiastically accepted invitation, with just one hitch: part of his new family’s Thanksgiving tradition is a visit to the family spa in the nude. About that, she is not enthusiastic. She is seventy years old and a radical mastectomy survivor. She’s not excited about others viewing her nakedness, age and mastectomy or not. She’s just not one to share her nakedness. We understand. As my wife said to, “Hell to the no. Nobody outside of you is seeing my body.” That’s a position she’s held since she was a little girl.
Today’s music comes out of a car ride yesterday. The song is called “Classic” by Cam and came out in 2020. There are lines in it which we enjoy: “Johnny and June, Chevy light blue (They don’t make ’em like this anymore), Bette Davis, Yellow pages (They don’t make ’em like this anymore).” When we first heard it after its release, we laughed, went home and confirmed that we heard right.
Well, if you’re read this post before, you know that The Neurons liked that and have kept it going in the morning mental music stream this morning.
This is a late post. I’ve had my coffee, as I spent the first hours cleaning up and doing dishes after my wife did her cooking last night. Stay positive and test negative. Hope you have a day with an outcome worthy of giving thanks. Here’s Cam with “Classic”.
Backward Shuffle(floofinition) – Move mastered by animals which allows them to escape by wiggling backwards through minute openings.
In use: “To give their floof medicine, he put his knees together, his pet before him, and held onto them while his partner attempted to get the medicine into the animal’s math. To their amusement and dismay, Super executed a backward shuffle, slipped through Ron’s legs, escaping his grasp, and dashed away.”
Floofmosis(floofinition) – Animal’s ability to unobtrusively expand and move, without apparently moving, to take over an entire space, despite its size.
In use: “The family cats and dogs were all floofmosis masters. Each was cabable of settling on a bed or chair with a person and slowly pushing the person out, even though the animals all weighed less than twenty pounds and the people were all over one hundred ten pounds and had both weight and size advantages over the animals. They just couldn’t compete with the floofmosis.”
My wife and I were traveling in the gray Toyopet Publica which we had during our Okinawa residence back in the early 1980s. Two cats, Boo and Quinn (deceased in real life in the last two years) accompanied us. A whim took us on a visit to a ramshackle and primitive roadside tourist trap. Small cabins painted light blue with dark blue trim pressed in alongside a small store, tiny café with deck, and peeling white picnic tables and a zoo.
Boo and Quinn were acting strange, pulling my attention to them. I was worried about where they were and what was going to happen to them. I kept mentioning this to my wife. Meanwhile, she was walking around, trying to see things.
I ended up going to the end of the main building. Bushes to the left over remnants of a cinder block wall pinched the path into a narrow passage at that point. As I checked on the cats, I heard noises. Turning, I discovered a large horned animal on the path back by the building. It seemed to be having a fit but moving our way. I grabbed my wife, who hadn’t noticed, and said, “Come on, we need to move.” Then I took her around to the café deck. I find us seats but many people were using the ramp beside us and kept bumping into me. Annoyed, I decided to move. A man beside me said, “Thank you to the man with the green hat on for moving.” I was wearing my green Tilly hat so I knew he meant me. I didn’t know if he was being sarcastic but went on.
Searching for my cats in different places, I encountered a wild little red cat throwing a fit. I realized that it was located where the other animal was having a fit and guessed there might be something wrong with the air there or something. The increased my concern for my cats. I sped up my search and found the two. Both were almost comatose. I took them back to the car and revived them, and then called to my wife to leave.
Flooftouch(floofinition) – A person who is easily is easily taken advantage or manipulated by animals.
In use: “Michael was such a flooftouch for his cats. All that was needed was a purr, meow, or even just a look, and he responded by asking them what they wanted, hurrying about to give them treats or food, let them out, or
Carfloof(floofinition) – Animal who enjoys car rides or who prefers using cars as shelter or protection.
In use: “A true carfloof, the little tabby started riding in cars when she was six months old, enjoying the view from the center console, rising up on to her back legs to watch everything going on outside the windows.”
Floofment(floofinition) – Animal action to instigate a reaction or rouse others.
In use: “The dog learned that the best way to floofment Suzanne and get her attention was to jump up, look towards the downstairs area as if hearing something, and then start barking like mad. It worked every time.”
Refloofucation (floofinition) – A process of training conducted by an animals to break paradigms and instill new understanding about animals.
In use: “After Kevin adopted the big rescue dog, the animal, named Summit, began a refloofucation effort to help Kevin and others understand that being big didn’t mean being mean or aggressive, and that cats aren’t dogs’ natural enemies.”
Michael Seidel, writer 