Good-bye To Another Beloved Friend

Kitty: March ?, 1990 - August 3, 2006

Picture: Kitty (black cat) and sister Tidy. Kitty always blinked for every picture I ever took of her! She is a really cute cat with yellow eyes and medium length fur that was always extra smooth.

Kitty died today. I had an appointment to have Kitty checked out since I have been concerned about her. Right as I set her on the examining table, she died. I will never know what ailed her but I am positive she is glad to be with Tidy now.

As a kitten, Kitty picked me out. My roommate got her and her real sister (not Tidy-another all black cat) from somebody she knew. I went with her to pick up the 2 kittens all those years ago. Well, Kitty never bonded with my friend, her real owner. Kitty followed me around all the time and slept on me every night. When I moved out of my friend's house she gave me Kitty and her sister.

About a year later, the young cats were outside playing. When I went out to check on them I saw Kitty's sister sitting in the window of some old lady's house. I already had 5 cats at that time (Little Cat, Tidy, Kitty, Kitty's real sisiter, and a young Siamese boy mamed Puff) so I just let the lady keep Kitty's sister since it was a good home. Kitty stayed with me.

I am in some shock and disbelief from losing 2 great animal friends in one month (and the hamster). It's very depressing and there's a big hole in my heart as well as a big empty apartment filled with their stuff. I know I will see them on the other side when my time comes but it's still heart-breaking. The newly adopted Alice will be an only cat from now on.

Feeling Small In This Huge World

Sorry I haven't posted anything lately or responded to others or visited others sites even. I am overwhelmed with stuff to do-school, homework, having to work a lot more cuz I'm broke, bills, the usual buildup of life.

Also adding to the problem is my other cat, Kitty who is 17. First I thought she was depressed because Tidy is gone. She is getting VERY thin fairly quickly and not coming out as she usually does. She used to be perky and vocal. Today I noticed a slimy drip from her mouth and a terrible odor. It very well could be cancer in her mouth. I have experience with this since my Mom's cat died of this not too long before Tidy passed on. I will have to take her to the vet, work more to pay those bills, and go from there. I really can't bear to lose another animal family member again this summer.

So, I will leave saying that I will most likely not be doing any computer activities until I finish up this class in a few weeks. But while I am gone, don't forget the animals- send your comments in on wolves and especially send comments to the NFL to get Vick out of there for his sick, immoral animal cruelty to his fighting dogs (Humane Society is doing the most work on this). Don't forget to take the time to watch animals and appreciate them.

Picture: This chipmunk lives near the pond where I saw the otter by Yellowstone Lake. He/she was running around busily that day like I have been lately.

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.

A Life In My Hands

Tidy, my 19 year old cat with bladder cancer and kidney trouble, is still here. I have come to the decision that I will not continue to give her medications any more. I will give her some fluids only. The medicine was never intended to make her better and it is only prolonging the inevitable. She's getting very thin. I have told her to just go to sleep and let her soul go the Heaven-I will understand and miss her. She is still eating, drinking, walking, purring, and looking out of the window. But I know she is not well at all. I cannot put her down with that much life left in her even if she is already dying. That's is supposed to be God's decision not mine. I guess by my decision for the cat that is His will being imposed through me. Having the power to end another's life is not a power I care to have.

The picture is Tidy outside on a leash on a bright sunny day. As a younger cat, Tidy was petite but fiesty, not a cat any other cat wanted to mess with. She would take off for 2 and 3 days at a time. I never knew where she went and sometimes I would go out looking at dead cats on the roads to make sure Tidy wasn't one of them. Sometimes she would come back smelling like a cow pasture! She only goes outside for about 5 minutes now before she wants to go back in. Tidy will be survived by one cat sister, Kitty, who is 17 now. Her older sister died 3 years ago of hyperthyroidism at 16 years old. These cats were with me for half of my life! They've been through a lot.

Southwestern Wolves & A Little Respect

Well, the wolves of the Southwest have been under fire for a while now. I was so mentally tired from fighting for the Yellowstone wolves for months that I admit I am not up to par on what is happening with these other wolves. All I know for sure is that there are only 59 wolves total down there and that is apparently too many for some folks. So another battle is brewing.

I feel for wolves maybe moreso than any other animal. I don't know why. I am not a dog person-I do like dogs but I don't care to have on as a pet and don't get all excited when I see one. I'm actually somewhat afraid of dogs a little after a 2-pit bull incident at work many years ago. But I am not afraid of a wolf. When a wolf ran within 10 feet of me and the kid the other year, I felt awe. I was physically weak and speechless, eyes huge with excitement (hence no photographs!). I felt no need to fear it. Respect yes, fear no. I did not intentionally go out seeking to come that close to one and had no idea it was even around until it came by unexpectedly. I do not teach the kid to fear animals, just repsect them and their homes and to be aware of potential dangers associated with each species. I am more afraid of a dog harming my kid than a wolf because who knows what the dog owner has instilled into that pet. With a wolf, it rather just stay away from people and with good reason. I am mysteriously drawn to wolves more than any other animal.

Everyone wants respect. All species, not only humans. Wolves get little respect and I get tired of their persecution. They are wonderful animals. In fact, all animals are wonderful in some way and I do include those that I don't particularly care for. They are just like us. They have families, friends, and feelings and are just trying to make a living. Animals need respect.

And don't even think about telling me animals don't think and feel because I know better! For a good book on animals emotions, I suggest The Emotional Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff with a foreward by Jane Goodall (2007, New World Library).

I urge everyone to stand up for the 59 wolves of the Southwest.

Here's a link to learn more about the Mexican Wolves:
Southwestern Wolf Information & USFWP Recommmendations

Also, I was finally able to get the short fox video onto the top right sidebar. If you click on it, it plays above the latest post, right under the title. I was lucky enough to get it there so that's where it will stay for now. I have a short deer one to get up too. I may end up with an animal video link on that side somewhere and sometime in the future. And notice how the links in posts are finally working correctly!!!

Home On The Range

Ever take the time to watch a prairie dog? Interesting little creatures. Cute. Always living on the edge, wary of predators waiting to get a good meal.

Prairie dogs have again come under attack by the U.S. Forest Service:

According to Defenders of Wildlife: The Forest Service is proposing to make it easier to poison and kill prairie dogs anywhere on three public grasslands. They’re even targeting an area in South Dakota’s Buffalo Gap National Grassland called Conata Basin -- key habitat for the recently reintroduced swift fox and our nation’s most important recovery area for the endangered black-footed ferret.

Prairie dogs are a keystone species and a sign of a healthy ecosystem. Many animals eat these little critters and many larger critters also take over their tunnels to make a home of their own. If prairie dogs are gone, so is the other wildlife. Poisoning prairie dogs is also questionable because other animals, plants, and insects can be poisoned "accidentally." I say "accidentally" because if they know this is going to happen and it is done anyway, then it was no accident at all. The other species poisoning will be an overlooked by-product not given another thought to. The worst part of this proposed poisoning is that it is in areas set aside as National Grasslands where prairie dogs are expected to be living. And yes, our tax dollars will be funding this terrible project. Please go to the Defender's site to comment on this absurd proposal (or send one in to the Forest Service yourself) before it is too late. It just seems like the animal attack never stops. Makes my heart heavy thinking about it.

The picture above, a Unita ground squirrel, and one other one from a different hole, were the permanent residents of my Slough Creek campsite. Ground squirrels and prairie dogs are related and if one did not know any better, they could very easily be mistaken for each other.

Oh, while I'm on the subject, I know many people that go out shooting prairie dogs for weekend fun. Some of these folks even have their maps marked with prairie dog towns all over the state. They share the maps with other killers. Then they come in to work or school and laugh about blasting away these little animals, guts and blood splattered everywhere as the other animals watch. I think it is just plain sick.

Here's a link to learn more about these little critters:
Save The Prairie Dogs

Thinking Blogger Award Choices

So here are my 5 choices to receive the “Thinking Blogger” Award:

1. Creation on the Blade
God and our animal world all rolled into one! Great pictures and a fun new feature-an interactive puzzle to figure out every month.
2. Waitress Stories
Gives people a behind the scenes look into the everyday life of a waitress. A must-visit site for those who have never worked in the service industry and enjoy dining out. Please tip generously!
3. A Step Apart: A Few Random Musings
A great personal perspective into the happenings around Yellowstone Park and the outdoors.
4. My Journey to Eliminate Debt
One brave family’s quest to wipe out debt. The ups and downs of their newly-started journey. A lesson anyone with debt can learn from (and perhaps try to encourage this family with).
5. Rick’s Astronomy Journal
An amateur astronomy site because sometimes we need a break from the trials of everyday life to think about what else is out there! Cool pictures along with photographer’s notes.

THE RULES ARE: Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award:

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the memo

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (there is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

A Two-Award Treat

How fortunate I am! I won a Creation on the Blade's Animal Knowledge Award for June and a Thinking Blogger Award from Victorya Chase Goes To Therapy. How delightful, unexpected, and appreciated.

I will say that the wildlife and nature I hold so dear are the reasons I won these awards. Without them I would have nothing to write about or no animals to know about. These same entities have also drawn in others that enjoy the same things and I thank you guys and girls for that.

Since I am on a constricted schedule today, I will post these awards and "Tag" someone else when time allows.

A Lesson In Tolerance

I thought about the animals I saw on my trip and just had to say something about the tolerance of animals in general. As I stated earlier, many (maybe all) of the predatory animals wandering into town here are killed, not relocated. Deer are a common sight lying dead along the roads, as of course are racoons, rabbits, prairie dogs and our own pet cats. After really taking the time to watch all the wildlife in Yellowstone the past 2 days, I KNOW animals have a very high tolerance for humans. Fears have been instilled into us; we think wild animals are out to attack and kill us. We are taught to fear these animals. Sure sometimes an animal may attack but most times it is because we were in their territory and were surprised, or for protection of their young, and only rarley purely predatory.

The grizzly was just going about its business, no intentions of harming a person. The fox was playful and curious, only a couple feet away from humans and not afraid at all. The deer did their grazing as us campers camped. The sheep went about grazing at the side of the road, never once moving as a person in each car took a turn for a picture. The moose kept on grazing as many people moved in to get pictures. Buffalo lay only about 10 feet away, resting on thermal ground near hot springs as tourists walked by and stopped to take pictures. These wild animals were kind enough to share their home and themselves with us-and peacefully. Very tolerant of our strange habits.

Now on the other hand, the mountain lions and bears coming into town to try to share our home with us do not get out alive. They are treated as criminals and without a trial. They are shot dead as they try to find their way in a world that has few places left for them. The poor deer are probably the most tolerant here. Far too many of them are hit by cars and left dead, thrown in the trash by the roadkill cleanup crew like trash. Humans have little tolerance left for animals. It will be a sad world indeed when the only animals left are trapped in zoos and as pets while the ones people don't favor are wiped off the face of the Earth.

The tolerance of animals is a lesson we need to learn. They are accepting and adapting to us so why can't we do the same? God gave us all this planet as home.

Animals are amazing!

Animals, Animals Everywhere!

I had an unexpectedly amazing overnight trip. First, I must say that the Slough Creek Campground is absolutely gorgeous. My intentions were to camp along the creek but those sites were full. To my delight, I ended up in the best site of them all. Under 3 huge pine trees with a small, sagebrush & wildflower-covered meadow for a view and hills and mountains in the background. Many deer came through the meadow. Some stopped to graze, some ran through. A fox played along the creek and in the meadow. It came into people's camps and was quite a people-friendly creature. I took a short video of it but I don't know how to load those into the blog yet. Other animals on the trip (not in the campground): a small black bear, a lone bighorn sheep grazing roadside, a small moose, lots of pelicans, the usual buffalo but only one elk, and the prize this time-a grizzly. The buffalo had a lot of calves. This is only the third time I've ever seen a moose here(keep in mind I've been coming here since I was 7 years old and am now 38!). Bighorn sheep seem pretty rare anymore. There used to be herds of them coming down out of the high mountains in winter to graze the lower elevations now I'm lucky to see a single sheep every few years.

Now the bear story. The grizzly was in southern Hayden Valley in the Trout Creek area about 10am. It wandered up by a buffalo and kind of half-attempted to charge it but it backed off quickly and ran away. The buffalo never moved an inch. Then the bear wandered around looking at plants until it got to the top of a hill (by the road). Then it saw all of us tourists and debated on crossing the road or not. It was a cute bear and appeared unaggitated with all of us, just a bit leary. Then another buffalo came running from across the other side of the road not knowing the bear was there. The bear had already decided to cross the road at that time so there was no interaction between the two. After that, I decided I would leave the "bear jam". I had a couple pictures and did not want to bother the animal more. It was a collared bear and somebody said it was a female. Beautiful sight with its brown fur and muscle rippling in the sunlight! No wolves this time-not even a howl-and I even camped in an area of overlapping territory for 3 packs.

Also, this Slough Creek campground is where the poor cinnamon black bear from an earlier post met its untimely death. I felt quite sad as I glanced along the creek where the bear had died, still laying partially in the water. Despite this sadness, the trip was a fantastic celebration of animal life.

Sparkling Summer Nights

The firefly, also known as the lightning bug, is actually neither a fly nor a bug, but a beetle, say Purdue entomologists. This particular firefly is called Say's firefly (Pyractomena angulata), one of about 175 species of fireflies in the United States. (Scientific illustration by Arwin Provonsha, Purdue Department of Entomology.)

I was thinking about fireflies for a while now. They are not out here in Montana and I think of them every summer.

Read this paragraph of an old paper of mine and you will understand a little about why I am so fond of these tiny glowing wonders:

I have many fond memories of St. Clair (Pennsylvania), but the best thing I remember is catching the lightning bugs in those humid summer evenings. Most of the townsfolk would go out to sit on their porches to cool off because there is no air conditioning, even to this day. My grandparents used to sit on their swing and my brothers and I would play on the front porch and wait for the lightning bugs to come out. Sometimes we could catch them on the street, but it was far more entertaining to lie on the grass at the church and wait. We would track them through the grass and air by the yellow glow of their tails. If we caught any lightning bugs, we would only keep them over night before releasing them. I am a lot older now, but I still catch lightning bugs when I go back to St. Clair. There is nothing better.

I tried to put the whole paper on so the full sense comes through but I can't add a document anywhere I guess without copying several pages of text right into a post.

Now I'm off on an overnight camping trip into prime wolf and grizzly habitat-Slough Creek in Yellowstone! Lucky for me, the kid has now decided not to fish down there. I know she will probably change her mind again so I have the gear packed anyway.

Must I Kill To Connect With Nature?

Photo: If I remember correctly, these elk were grazing along the Firehole River a couple years ago. One was behind the left tree so it can't be seen. Notice how I am NOT standing beside a dead elk with my gun and showing off its rack!

I woke up this morning thinking about going camping when I remembered a conversation (one-sided argument maybe is a better term) I had with a person about connecting with nature months ago. This person insisted that he was closer to nature than those of us that do not "harvest" animals for sport. He said he is right out in nature and gets to see the animals doing what they do. After saying I do everything he does except kill animals he still would not see that us non-hunters are also close to nature. Apparently, the kill puts you closer to nature. This is only the basic just of the conversation. I ended up leaving this conversation feeling abused, confused, and angered. And I still do when I think about it. I do not see the difference between what hunters do and what I do except fot the killing part. I camp and hike in the wild. I even use hunting equipment bought at hunting stores (unfortunately)-a laser-sighted spotting scope, GPS, camp gear, etc. I may spend less time outside because I am not stalking animals to their death so I can leave whenever I want. I just don't understand why a hunter is closer to nature than I am. I think it is terrible that one thinks taking the life of an animal brings you closer to nature. It doesn't make sense. Must feel good to rip the life away from some unsuspecting animal I guess. Makes a hunter feel big and powerful. I think this thinking is sick and misguided. It take a bigger person to see the beauty in animals without wanting to possess their very lives. Maybe somebody could help me understand this hunter's point a little better because I just don't see it.

When I get a chance I will have to get more photos off my camera to use in this blog. I am too lazy to climb behind my desk and sort through all the wires. I'm no pro (as you can tell by the date stamps! I do not use those anymore for obvious reasons) but I would prefer to use my own stuff when I have it and if I can fit it in somehow.

And thanks to everyone for the nice comments about this blog. When I started it I was afraid I would get a bunch of angry hunters trying to put me down. Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with that yet. I would delete the stuff anyway since this is supposed to be a conflict-free zone. I do enough defending my postion in real life. I'm even an official environmenatlist now but this field tends to be one-sided as well. Everything is shifted towards finding solutions (like with energy), but very few are looking at the real root of problems and those of us that do are outcasts. I am tired of conflict. Thanks to all you supporters of nature and LIVE wildlife.

Ah, Yellowstone!

I am glad that a poster (postee?) decided that Yellowstone is now a must visit place! Oh, I could blab on endlessly about that place. I am obsessed with it and very fortunate to live within driving distance. Luckily for me with my recent environmental degree, I may now have a shot at being a naturlist or something there. Heck, I would love to even volunteer as a campground host or a retail employee just to be there-but that does not pay the bills. Animals, geology, biology, chemistry,great thunderstorms, camping and hiking, peace,and God all rolled into one beautiful, no-hunting, supervolcanic mountain ecosystem! Now really, what more could a person ask for?

I must say, I do prefer to camp. However, showers can be a long drive away and cost $3/shower. I really don't care to smell like food in bear country if I don't have to. I would also recommend a stay in the cabins at Canyon Village or in a room with a view of Old Faithlful. Anywhere a person stays in the Park, they will not be disappointed. For animal watching-don't expect to see bears and wolves by staying on the main roads (although you can at the right times)-take a patient hike and enjoy. For moose, I would just go down to the Grand Tetons since that's where I always see them at. I haven't seen a moose in the Park since I was a kid.

Also, I would be glad to check out other blogs so leave your URL. It's good to connect in even a small way with people from all around the world. I do have few links on the right to some other blogs of interest that I've found so far.

Oh, this geyser is in the Old Faithful area. I forget the name.