Gail’s Sunday Pic
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Alex Died on June 19, 2025
I suppose I should start by telling you how it happened. It was an otherwise nondescript day back in February. I went to get out of my rocker-recliner and when I scooched forward to get up, the front armrests bottomed out on the floor as they always do. Unbeknownst to me, Alex just happened to be laying down there that fateful day, and his left arm managed to get pinched.
Of course he yowled the loudest I'd ever heard him yell in his entire life and shot off into the basement. I felt terrible about it, but then I had no way of knowing he was down there when I went to get up. After a short while, Alex came back upstairs, and I was able to check for injury.
Shockingly, there were no broken bones, no blood, and Alex was able to walk just fine. It almost seemed cartoonish at the time, but down the left side of his left arm was a ribbon of flattened fur. He seemed somewhat indifferent to this, and acted like he just wanted to put the whole thing behind him. Seeing as Alex didn't appear to be in immediate danger, I took a "wait and see" position.
Over the next month, the "ribbon" began to shrink inward towards his elbow. I took this as a good sign that his injury was healing naturally and everything would be fine... But things were not fine. After a month and a half, his elbow began to swell. By mid-April I had to take him in to the vet for an exam.
The vet did a fair bit of Hmmm'ing and scrunched her face a lot. She didn't want to poke it with anything for fear it might introduce something. She took some measurements and expressed a "wait and see" attitude. I then scheduled a follow up appointment two months out.
Only a month later in mid-May, the swelling on his elbow had increased to the point that it started to ulcer. I called the vet and got him in immediately. This time they tried to drain it, but it went horribly. After the first stick, Alex started squirting blood all over the place, and the vet and technician freaked out and were running around looking for towels while I had to hold my cat down in a growing pool of his own blood.
After they got things back under control, she tried again with a larger needle, and went in from a different direction. After plunging to the center of the mass, she remarked that it was solid and that the fluid had probably dispersed into the surrounding tissue. She then went on to suggest that it might even be "malignant" and recommended a biopsy. They gave me an estimate for the procedure that ran from $500 to $800. I immediately left and made an appointment with another vet that I had gone to in the past.
The next day, my alternate vet didn't have any good news. By now, Alex's arm was very infected. At first he suggested that the arm would have to come off, but after noting Alex's age, he pulled back and recommended palliative care. I pushed for a quote on the cost of an amputation, and he informed me it would be around $3500 at the lowest, and that at his age, Alex would only live another 6 months after the surgery, and to just stick with palliative care.
They gave Alex a shot of antibiotics, a shot for long term pain management, prednisolone tablets and a liquid antibiotic, along with an appointment to come back about a month later.
Over the memorial day weekend, I cleaned Alex's wound and administered his meds. Alex was still Alex though. He obviously wanted to live, so I began making phone calls. Eventually I got in touch with the Humane Society. It took week and a half to finally get in, but after looking at Alex's arm, their surgeon said that the arm was "not compatible with long term survival" and agreed to amputate it... in two weeks.
That was the longest two weeks of my life.
Every day that thing on his elbow grew bigger and bigger. In the final week, it started to split open. It looked like something out of a horror movie. The outer layer of skin died off and eventually I had to cut the hard chunk of dried flesh off with scissors. Fortunately the antibiotics prescribed by the second vet kept the wound site free from infection.
And through all of this, Alex was still Alex. He just kept on living his life like nothing was wrong. Even with that thing on his arm, he still walked normal, climbed up and down the stairs, jumped on the bed, table, dresser, et cetera. Part of me knew this cat was gonna make it, but part of me was scared that his arm was going to go septic and Alex would die.
I felt relieved on the day of the surgery. We made it through to this day! Alex would be a tripod, but he was going to live! I dropped Alex off at the Human Society and went to work expecting to pick him up between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm.
My phone rang a little before noon. The voice on the other end informed me that the surgery had gone fine, and they didn't notice anything wrong during the procedure, but in the recovery room, Alex's heart rate began to drop, he went non-responsive, and his pupils dilated. The surgeon explained that sometimes a blood clot will break free during the surgery and make its way into the brain. Alex had had a stroke. There was nothing more they could do.
Moments later, Alex died.
Usually I show off pictures of Gail here, (she's doing find by the way). Gail is a fun dog who loves to constantly run and play, but Alex was the one that I could really count on for affection. He would hop up on my chest when I was resting in my recliner and purr. He would be there at the door to greet me when I came home. He would keep me company when I pooped. He would wake me in the morning, and insist I gave him a thorough petting before I went to sleep at night. He talked to me with his incessant meows, and made sure I never left the house without filling the food and water bowls. Alex loved to get his "full kitty massage" complete with belly rubs, and he was the kind of cat that would walk up and headbutt me to let me know I was his as much as he was mine.
The house feels so empty without him now.
I miss you Alex,
-f2xGET THE PLUNGER!
What is Flush Twice?
Flush Twice has been around since May of 2003. It started out as a JOTD (Joke of the Day) website. New jokes were published every weekday. Over the years, good jokes were increasingly hard to come by, and eventually they got so rare that I just stopped trying to publish them.
Since 2004 there has also been an eponymous comic. I still occasionally publish a new one on Saturdays. It’s also rare anymore, but sometimes it happens.
Here lately I’ve been posting a “Link of the Day”. For the time being, I will be featuring a new website from my enormous collection of bookmarked websites every weekday. None of it is solicited promotions, and no one is paying me to feature their site. These are just websites that at one time I thought were interesting enough to add to my bookmarks folder.
I highly encourage using some kind of ad blocking extension before clicking on any of these links. You’ll also hear me say this phrase a lot about these posts: “They can’t all be winners.” But it’s better than just leaving the site abandoned.
The jokes were generously provided by friends and visitors such as yourself. I want to express my eternal thanks to everyone over the years who helped contribute to the collection.
So what is it that makes a joke funny?
It all boils down to a sudden shift in perception. The story starts you thinking one way, then the punchline turns that thinking on its ear. The art of the joke is to craft a short story that isn’t overly contrived, then deliver a punchline that suddenly shifts your perception about the story you were being told.
Many of the jokes on this site are offensive, and I make no apologies for it. Offensive jokes work by making the reader uncomfortable through the use of a taboo subject thus enhancing the underlying humor. Without the offensive element, the joke would simply not be as funny.
(Just thought you might like to know.)
Yes, it’s a usable search function! Try it!
Monthly Archives: June 2018
Arabs Not Welcome!
A Jewish man named Moshe opened a Kosher restaurant and put a notice in the window: “ARABS NOT WELCOME”
The next day, an Arab walked in and requested a sandwich. Moshe decided that he really didn’t want to risk causing a scene, so he made the Arab the sandwich but charged him double the price.
The next day the same Arab was back, and this time he ordered a full lunch.
Moshe charged him triple and thought, “Maybe he’ll take the hint this time!”
The Arab ate his lunch, paid without a quibble, praised the food and requested a reservation for 10 of his friends for that same evening.
Moshe decided to book the reservation, but to charge them all tenfold!
That evening, the Arabs came and had a very large dinner. They paid without complaining and even tipped generously.
The next day Moshe put a new sign in the window: “JEWS NOT WELCOME.”
Don’t Despair
Sitting by the window in her convent, Sister Eulalia opened a letter from home and found a ten dollar bill inside.
As she read the letter she caught sight of a shabbily dressed stranger leaning against a lamppost below. Quickly she wrote, “Don’t despair, Sister Eulalia” on a piece of paper, wrapped the ten dollar bill in it, and dropped it out the window.
The man picked it up, read it, looked at her with a puzzled expression, tipped his hat and went off down the street.
The next day Sister Eulalia was told that a man at the door was insisting on seeing her. To her surprise it was the stranger from the night before. Without a word he handed her a roll of bills.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“That’s the 60 bucks you have coming. Don’t Despair paid five to one.”.
The Little Couple
Little Bruce and Jenny were only 10 years old, but they knew they were in love.
One day they decided that they wanted to get married, so Bruce went to Jenny’s father to ask him for her hand.
Bruce bravely walked up to him and said, “Mr. Smith, me and Jenny are in love and I want to ask you for her hand in marriage.”
Thinking that this was just the cutest thing, Mr. Smith replied, “Well Bruce, you are only ten. Where will you two live?”
Without even taking a moment to think about it, Bruce replied, “In Jenny’s room. It’s bigger than mine and we can both fit there nicely.”
Mr. Smith said with a huge grin, “Okay, then how will you live? You’re not old enough to get a job. You’ll need to support Jenny.”
Again, Bruce instantly replied, “Our allowance, Jenny makes five bucks a week. And I make 10 bucks a week. That’s about 60 bucks a month, so that should do us just fine.”
Mr. Smith was impressed by how much thought Bruce had put into this. “Well Bruce, it seems like you have everything figured out. I just have one more question. What will you do if the two of you should have little children of your own?”
Bruce just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, we’ve been lucky so far.”
And now Mr. Smith no longer thinks little Bruce is so cute.
The Three Little Rabbits
Three little rabbits escaped from a testing lab and found an entire field full of carrots. They ate themselves into a stupor and slept through the night.
The next morning, they found an entire field full of female rabbits with no males in sight.
They had sex throughout the entire day and slept throughout the night.
The next morning, the rabbits got to talking.
“I’m gonna go back to that field of carrots,” said the first one.
“I’m gonna go back to those cute little rabbits,” said the second.
“I’m going back to the lab,” said the third. “I’m dying for a cigarette.”
Foraging for Fruit
At the supermarket, Dorothy nervously looked over the oranges with a worried concern.
Noticing her distress, the store manager approached her and asked if everything was alright.
“Well, I was looking for some fruit for my husband,” said Dorothy. “Have these oranges been treated with any poisonous fertilizers or weedkiller?”
“No madam,” remarked the manager, “You’ll have to get that from our ‘Home and Garden’ department.”
Sunday, June 24, 2018
We’ve Been Getting Less Prurient
and that’s on purpose!
I just wanted to give the regular viewers and contributors a heads up. While most of the jokes published here will still contain “mature” or “offensive” themes, there have been and will continue to be fewer jokes of a sexual nature. This is not because I don’t like sexual humor, nor am I being pressured by feminists. The simple fact is, the sexual jokes are getting boring.
While you could write volumes of jokes about infidelity, impotence, and incest, eventually they all just start to blur together. That’s why I’ve been really trying to tone it down. About once per week is OK, but there for a while I was posting nothing but sexual jokes five days a week.
It’s important to note why I was posting so many jokes regarding sex in the first place: Those are the jokes you (my contributors) have been sending me! At risk of alienating some (or even all) of you, I’m going to stop using most of them. I know that’s a risky move for a site called “Flush Twice”. Believe it or not, I only called it that because there were so many jokes being sent to me that you’d have to “flush twice” to get them all to go down, and not because we’d specialize in toilet humor.
So in this open letter, I’m asking you nicely to please send jokes other than the sexual ones. Religious, political, and racist jokes are also offensively funny ways to make us all laugh, and I’d really like it if you’d start sending a few “clean” jokes once in a while. They don’t have to be that clean, but make it something you could at least tell the boss’s boss without risking your promotion.
Pax,
-f2x
The Age of Contempt
The Indian at the Fair
At the State Fair a young fellow was watching an old Indian. Above the old Indian was a sign that read: “$5.00 – If I can’t tell you where you’re from, I’ll pay you $50.00!”
Just then, a cowboy approached the Indian and asked, “Is the sign right?”
The Indian said, “yes.”
The cowboy handed him a fiver and said, “you’re on!”
The Indian looked the cowboy up and down, he noticed some cow dung on the cowboy’s boots and flatly stated, “you’re from Wyoming.”
The cowboy shook his head and said, “I’ll be darned! You’re right!” and strolled away.
A second cowboy approached the Indian and went through the same routine. Handing him the fiver, he stood and watched as the Indian looked him up and down before noticing a bit of straw and cow dung on his boots. The Indian said, “you’re from Montana!”
The cowboy, dejected as all get out, walked away.
The young man decided he’s going to give the Indian a run for his money. He went into the men’s room, took off his boots, scrubbed them up, dried them off, and put on a coat of polish. The he went ouside and approached the Indian. He handed the Indian a five-dollar bill and said, “do your stuff!”
The Indian looked and looked, and appeared to be befuddled. The young man was now certain he had gotten one up on the Indian.
The Indian finally said, “You’re from New Zealand!”
The young man was astonished and asked, “How in the world did you know that I’m from New Zealand?”
The Indian replied, “By the wool on your zipper.”
Mail Order Bride
An 80-year old rancher named Tom had lost his wife a year or so before and rumor had it that he was marrying a “mail order” bride.
Being a good friend, the town sheriff asked Tom if the rumor was true.
Tom assured him that it was.
The sheriff then asked Tom the age of his new bride to be.
Tom proudly said, “She’ll be twenty-one in November.”
Now the sheriff, being the wise man that he was, could see that the sexual appetite of a young woman could not be satisfied by an eighty-year-old man. Wanting his old friend’s remaining years to be happy the sheriff tactfully suggested that Tom should consider getting a hired hand to help him out on the ranch, knowing nature would take its own course.
Tom thought this was a good idea and said he would look for one that afternoon.
About four months later, the sheriff ran into Tom in town again. “How’s the new wife?” asked the sheriff.
Tom proudly said, “Oh, she’s pregnant.”
The sheriff, happy that his sage advice had worked out, continued, “And how’s the hired hand?”
Without hesitating, Tom said, “She’s pregnant too.”