Wapsi Square Forum

Alkarii wrote: ↑Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:13 pm My dad rescued a tiny kitten from the turning lane of a five lane road in southwest Little Rock this afternoon. She seems to be only a couple weeks old, and we can't get her to drink from the bottle. She only seems interested in sleeping somewhere warm.

If she won't bottle-feed, you might try taking a small piece of old clean towel, dipping it in warm milk, and seeing if she'll "nurse" from a corner of it. I've read that some kittens and pups find the texture more natural than that of a bottle nipple.

We were able to get her to drink from a children's medicine syringe (squeezing it very slowly to avoid choking), and she was playing and moving around earlier. I'm talking to someone on IRC who's married to a vet tech, and he's giving me plenty of information as well. Still, if we have to, we'll see if the mama cat at my brother's place will take care of her.

Ick. I hate this part of the 'Cycle of Life'.

Still, I wanted to mention Kudos,oh Mighty Hunter! & those glue traps will respond to heat by becoming a bit less viscous if you intend to reuse them a second time. (I have...)

Sat it out facing the hot sunshine for awhile and they came off easier.

TazManiac wrote: ↑Sun Nov 29, 2020 1:09 pmStill, I wanted to mention Kudos,oh Mighty Hunter!

Thank you. I feel so validated, right now!

Whenever I go to clean one of my guns, I use a Hoppe's bore snake, with solvent on a couple passes, followed by a dry patch to see if I need to do any more passes with the solvent. Then I put lubricant on the snake in the proper spot and make a final pass.

I'm not sure how much a military issue cleaning kit costs, as I use the one my dad kept from his time in the army... so it was free.

As for getting into the other parts, I usually use a nylon bristled gun cleaning brush that is very similar to those that are in the GI kits, but are sold for fairly cheap, often sold with brass and I think steel bristled versions.

As for cleaning the bolt carrier group, I have a small tool that I bought at Academy Sports, and it's designed so I can use different parts of it to clean just about every important part of the bolt and the carrier.

For the chamber and locking lugs, I would recommend a chamber brush that fits your cleaning rod.

If I hadn't had a long day at work, I might have been able to give you a better answer.

Have you by any chance tried the "Ed's Red" cleaning-solvent recipe? It sounds like a very good, and very economical alternative to commercial gun-cleaning solvents, and the ingredients are easy to locate.

A very knowledgeable machinist friend of mine swears by a similar mixture (Dextrin ATF mixed with acetone) for use as a penetrating oil, to break free stuck and rusted bolts and nuts.

This morning, my mom told me the kitten had lost weight, and we decided to take her to the vet tomorrow. Shortly after I got home (within a couple of minutes), my mom said the kitten had gotten worse. She was still eating, but she wasn't getting feisty with the little medicine syringe that comes with Children's Tylenol, and she wouldn't lift her head when mom moved her or the blanket. I immediately changed out of my work clothes, and right after my sister arrived, we had a little discussion about taking her to the vet.

Long story short, I had insisted on taking her to the emergency vet clinic. We hadn't even decided on a name yet, though a few days ago, my mom said that dad had suggested Holly, so that's what I put as her name on the form. My dad showed up a little later, as he had just finished his shift with Bite Squad for the night.

Sparing all the details... even if I had the $3000+ to possibly save her, the chances were extremely slim.

I got to hold her while she was given the drugs to euthanize her, and I had my hand on her side during the process. Little Holly was gone before the lady even inserted the third needle (the first was sedative) into the IV.

They gave us a complimentary clay impression of one of her paws, and put her in a box for us. When we got home, dad saw that they had put her in a small bag that had a plastic outside, and a zipper enclosure.

She's buried near the other cats, near the swing set in the back yard.

I've used Acetone/ ATF to free a stuck ring/block on a Tractor before...

edit- I'm sorry to hear the kitten news...

You did the right thing with the kitty.

I have way too many sad kitty stories, so we won't go there.

I keep thinking that if I hadn't waited and taken her to the vet last Tuesday, she might have had a better chance.

Now we have this big jar of kitten formula powder, and no kittens to feed. I think I might get ahold of an animal shelter and see if they will take the stuff, since we have no use for it now.

Here's a picture of little Holly.

I'm gonna be uploading some more pictures of little Holly onto Imgur.

It's really crazy, isn't it? She was with us for just shy of a full week, and we got really attached to her. She was so special to us, even though she mostly only slept and drank from a children's Tylenol syringe.

Here's a picture of her snoozing next to our dog, a few hours after my mom brought her home after meeting my dad partway between our house and where he found the little darling.

I have a bunch of pictures, but it's pretty hard for me to look at the pictures or watch the short videos for any length of time. Hopefully soon I will be able to get more than one picture at a time.

Alkarii wrote: ↑Sun Dec 06, 2020 11:18 pm I'm gonna be uploading some more pictures of little Holly onto Imgur.

It's really crazy, isn't it? She was with us for just shy of a full week, and we got really attached to her. She was so special to us, even though she mostly only slept and drank from a children's Tylenol syringe.

Here's a picture of her snoozing next to our dog, a few hours after my mom brought her home after meeting my dad partway between our house and where he found the little darling.

Thank you for taking care of her the way you did, Alkarii. It sounds as if you did the right and honorable thing, every step along the way.

You gave her a better life than she would have had otherwise (as short as it turned out to be), and a gentler passing.

Yeah, we tried...

I've added a couple videos and some more pictures, if anyone wants to see them.

Some jerks downvoted some of the pictures, though... I don't know why, because she was such a cute little fuzzy.

I just finished watching Half-Life & Portal - The Complete Story (What You Need to Know!), which narrates through the story of the games, with short scenes to illustrate the narration. The video is 33 minutes long, and flows well. While I had read a little bit about Portal, on wikipedia, I was not aware of the full story. It was interesting. I particularly enjoyed learning about the intricacies and the fully-developed story of both of those games.

Seeing this, I can guess that had I had the chance, I would probably have enjoyed playing Portal, but not Half-Life.

The cake is a lie.

jwhouk wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:10 pm The cake is a lie.

FTFY.


And yet...

"The cake is a lie" is a lie!

Incidentally, I was quite surprised to find out that there was a gap of 15,000 years between Portal and Portal 2...

I have to say, Chell aged quite gracefully: she doesn't look a day over 25 or so...

I made another visit to the military surplus store earlier today, after getting my first haircut in more than a year. This time, I picked up an old military issue lensatic compass in great condition, and it came with a pouch that uses an ALICE clip for attachment. That's a little unfortunate, as I prefer MOLLE, but it looks like adapters are fairly cheap.

I also got some reading material... in the form of old field manuals from the '60s and '70s.

A very interesting take on the Bohemian Rhapsody, done by the Petersons, LIVE! (Something Queen never did, a Live version, that is, according to a comment below the video.)

Concidering all the track layering that went into the original, I'm ok w/ the live version(s) being taken on by interpretive others...

edit- And then I clicked the link and found it pretty good. (I must admit the use of such proper anounciation was hilarious...)