Welcoming A New Pet

Yesterday I picked up a new cat to share my home with. Her name is Alice aka "Alli" and she is 11 years old. The people at the shelter said people always take the kittens but rarely does anyone want a senior cat. I was not looking to get another cat at this time but I didn't want my last Kitty to be lonely anymore. Plus, I feel I have to help out animals if I can. My intentions were to go get 2 parakeets that were in there but I came out with the cat. She was free; they just wanted a home for her and I have room. She is a tabby/calico mix, a multi-colored brown striped cat that is very friendly. Right now she is not too sure about my other cat but surprisingly, Kitty is fine with her. It's odd to have a different cat around. I hope she stays healthy for a long time.


Another animal visitor lately is a young rabbit that stops by to chew up the grass. I left it some greens one day but I think they wilted in the 100+ heat before the bunny came by. I am sick of sweating. It's been 100+ for about 2 weeks now. I can't imagine being a furred animal in the summer! Use my air conditioning? Come on now, I am an environmental graduate. It's bad enough I am wasting electricity to run a fan. Plus, if we are truly in a global warming cycle, I had better find ways to adapt to heat that I can afford.

Excitement Of The Day

(This incident happened before I went on my trip.)
I was out on my patio talking to a visitor when she told me that a prairie dog just ran behind a plant stand (actually a TV cart that I moved outside). I opened up a door. A wide-eyed prairie dog stared at frantically stared at me-also wide-eyed from surprise! I shut the door and left it alone then I left the house for about a 1/2 hour. When I came back and walked up to the patio, a sparrow was lying there partially chewed up. I figured the prairie dog must be having lunch. Sure enough, the little critter was still running around my patio and went back into the plant stand. Then it ran off as I was trying to get a good picture of it.

It has been coming around every day now for a while and as you can see it leaves quite a mess.

Guess Where I've Been Lately?

Besides working a lot extra, I went to Yellowstone of course. I went down to the Tetons for a few hours one day as well (that's the first photo). I love these places. They remain relatively still on the grand scale but yet are always in a state of constant transformation.

Here are the wildlife tales from this mini-trip:

Lots of pelicans. Usually I see them swimming or resting on-shore. This time most were flying around.

Saw 1 river otter swimming in a nice calm pond near Yellowstone Lake one evening.

One bald eagle was flying only about 10 feet above the car as I drove. I followed it for a bit then I passed it. I looked up when it was directly overhead - it's not often one gets to see the bottom of an eagle flying close. Then it follwed me along the road for a ways before veering off. Don't worry, no other cars were around so I was not creating a hazard. Two more bald eagles were perched together on a fallen tree in Hayden Valley one afternoon (where the bears were, which I will tell about later).

Lots of buffalo (I told them not to go out of the Park or they would be meat-sausage and Great Plains burgers at Canyon Village!), elk, deer, and antelope. The buffalo calves are not as bright orange anymore. Two of them were fighting for a bit on a hill. Then 2 adults started at it. Dust flying everywhere. Didn't last long though and they all went back to being friends.

Now for the big winners!

One of the top prizes: A grizzly mom with one cub in souhtern Hayden Valley one evening. Close to where the last bear I saw was. I had to set up the scope for this. The cub was chewing on a carcass and would pop its head up every once in a while. The mom was nearby digging and grazing. The cub got up to keep up with the mom as she wandered farther away. Frisky little cub! The mom kept grazing around and the cub would stop then run and play. Later, a buffalo saw the bears and went down a hill towards them. The cub(which was closer to the buffalo than the mom) then stood up and was smelling the air, looking for the buffalo. The cub did this a few times finally, the mom and cub were together standing up together looking and smelling. The buffalo follwed them for a long time then finally decided to swim across the river. The bears stayed there. Of course, at this point a heavy rain started and I packed up.

The other top prize: The white wolf (540F-the alpha female) of the Hayden Pack and a pup! Right at their den! The pup was a black or dark grey one. She is supposed to have 5 pups (1 dark, 4 lighter) but I only saw the one. Started off with 6 pups total but one did not make it. The den is right out where people can see it from across the river at a picnic area. When I first arrived on the scene, I thought somebody said it was a moose so when I looked over and saw a white canine head popping up over some sagebrush I was pleasantly surprised. A bit faint of breath once again at this great sight. Then she stood up and went playfully towards the trees. The dark pup followed from out of the brush as my eyes and smile grew larger with disbelief. I never would have thought I would see them that easily. She is a brave mom having her den right out where millions of people come to watch her family. I know those tourists were not around when she picked that den but I get the feeling she is a proud mom type-wanting to show off the pups and knowing people are fighting to looking at them. She had all summer to move the den but hasn't. Wolves do have feelings. The white wolf is collared; the grizzly is not. These wolves were causing a major wolf jam and it was hard to even get in to see them. I'll go again in the fall to see the wolves when less people are hogging the place up. Naturally, I have no photos of the wolves because of a certain "commotion" around me created by a smallish child (who shall remain nameless at this time) as I was trying to watch the wolves. The bears were pretty far away so I don't think I'll be able to have decent picture to post. I only have a digital camera.

In the Favorite Sight Links at right, the Ralph Maughan site has pictures of the pups in the post: The Hayden pups, their first big (5) litter
or use this link and scroll down to the post: Hayden Pack pups 2007

To see photos of the white wolf use this link: Walking Shadow Ecology
(choose photography then Yellowstone Wolves and you should get the March 2007 Hayden Pack)



Now the crazy tourist stories:

One herd of buffalo with calves was coming up a hill. The hill happened to have a pull-out on top for cars. Well, the tourists were putting out their camp chairs to sit down and watch the trotting buffalo come up the hill. I imagine the chairs did not last long. I would have watched but it was obviously not a safe time and place to watch that herd.

One day, a lone buffalo was grazing the side of the road. A lady was walking towards the buffalo looking through binoculars the entire time. The buffalo was no more than 20 feet way from her so she really didn't need the binoculars. She was probably a bit surprised when she finally put them down.

The day after the grizzly and cub sighting, people were parked in the same area waiting to see them again. A huge, top of the line motor home was hogging up most of the parking area. The high priced RVs' kitchen apparently sucks because the people had set up a BBQ grill ouside. Or they were purposely trying to attract bears.

Tagged Again

I have been tagged by My Journey To Eliminate Debt. This project calls for sharing 8 personal facts about myself, then tagging 8 other bloggers to do the same. Here are the rules, which were passed to me:

-Each player must post these rules first.
-Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
-People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
-At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
-Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Now the 8 things:
1. Obviously, I love animals.
2. I can't stand country music or rap.
3. Once I threw out my Valentines because I was too shy and afraid to pass them out in school.
4. If I could be anyone, I would chooose to be Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.
5. I wish I could go on a permanent camping trip in Yellowstone.
6. As a junior high student, I sent away to NASA asking for an astronaut application (Not as a joke. I wanted to see what "the right stuff" is.). They sent it too.
7. "Plain" old rocks make me very happy. Each one tells a fantastic story.
8. Red is kind of a disturbing color for me.

OK, here's 6 of the next 8 to be tagged. I will tag some people I have not tagged previously.

Here's a start:
1. Astro Galaxy
2. Self Delusions of Angela May
3. Rigor Vitae
4. Life on the Blade
5. Bent Objects
6. Views From My Tent

Another Pet Lost

I just came in the door from working tonight. My hamster C. C. Mouser is dying as I type this. I don't know what happened to him. He was fine last night. Running around doing mouse business-running his wheel and eating. Now he is dying. Since my cat just passed away I was trying to introduce C. C. Mouser to my other cat Kitty (with the hamster staying in the cage of course), so Kitty wouldn't be so lonely. Kitty has been with Tidy since she was a kitten, 17 years, so I'm sure Kitty is lonely without Tidy. So much for that plan. I just don't know how much more of this I can take.

I will try to post a picture of C. C. when I find one. And for some reason I am not able to put a title one my post. Just not a good week for me.

Also, I have just been tagged to reveal 8 things about myself. When I get into the mindset, I will put that post together and tag the next bloggers.

Just Remember There Is A Heaven

Tidy: June ?, 1988 - July 5, 2007

I will miss her but now she will not suffer anymore.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your pet stories and support.

Thanks For Your Thoughts

I received this post today:

Anonymous said...
Hi,
I just stumbled upon your site and respect your view on your ailing, aged kitty. However, many years ago one of our kitties (who had had kidney problems early on and then for many years - primarily because this was in the 1970s before it was well known that male cats can have blockage issues, which he did at one point when young) that I wish we had taken that step to end his misery at the end. It was at the point that he had absolutely no quality of life. His last night on earth was horrendous. I guess we were in denial and kept hoping he would rebound. The kindest thing we could have done was to intervene and take him to the vets to end his misery that night. Even after that, it was still hard to make that decision with any pet and we rarely did (at least when it should have been done). But that is one gift we can give our beloved pets: to be there at their side when we say good bye for the last time (by the choice to euthanize). We make that choice when no other humane option is really left. I truly believe that they know that our actions are out of love. But it is hard to let go and that is a curse that humans carry it seems. It is in retrospect that I now wish I had made that decision for the sake of my beloved pets more often than I did. But again I do respect your view. Just wanted to add a different perspective which is more reflective than anything.

I would like to thank you for your reflections. I have been struggling lately, trying to decide when is the right time to take Tidy to the vet one final time. It is good to hear from others. It's a hard decision to make when feelings get in the way. I went through the same thing with my first cat but that was more of a cut & dried situation-in the middle of the night she lost her ability to use her back legs after prolonged hyperthyroidism and was trying to drag herself around. There was no question then. Now it is just not as clear but I know what I need to do soon. I have never hoped or thought she would get better-that was made clear from the start.

American Symbols

The bald eagle can finally come off the endangered species list. This is great news. And very fitting for the Fourth of July holiday.

Then I heard this on the news: "The Bald eagle is as American as..."

It is sad that a great American symbol was on the brink of extinction in the first place. So "American" was this species that it was killed off in mass numbers until almost was wiped off the face of the Earth. It's not sad because it is a symbol, but because eagles are living creatures that also call this world home.

The "threatened and endangered list" is a symbol to me. It is a symbol of all that is wrong with our interactions with animals (by "animals" I include fish and birds-it's my personal generalized term of non-plant, non-human species even though I know it's not proper). It is a symbol of our past stupidity and ignorance. Many endangered animals are symbols of some sort (not just in the U. S.)- grizzlies, wolves, tigers, pandas, etc. I think some of these animals wouldn't be as much of a symbol if they were not on the list. Wolves were never a symbol before-they were (and still are) hated and killed off. Now with their "recovery", they are a symbol of all that is wild.

Also on the subject of American sybmols, I had to laugh when a buffalo statue was unvieled in West Yellowstone a few weeks ago. A mighty, magnificant buffalo statue. A symbol of the Great Plains and Yellowstone. Yet in reality buffalo are slaughtered by the hundreds every year. I enjoy seeing a nice animal statue as much as the next guy but what's wrong with that picture?! Even in the days of colonial expansion,(European descended) people loved the buffalo so much that they annihilated them.

Animals coming off the list will never be truly "recovered." The recovered populations are simply at more manageable numbers to humans, at lower than natural population levels. What the ecosystem can sustain and what humans want to tolerate are completely different things. Animal populations just cannot compete with the human need to alter natural landscapes and control everything.