Any Survivor fans out there.

Cast photo from International business Times

Season thirty-one of Survivor just started last week.  The first episode of the show was fifteen years ago and I’ve watched every episode.  I’m a huge fan.  Naturally, I was excited about it.  They selected the contestants different this time around, letting the viewers vote on who they wanted to see play again.  All of these people have played before over the previous fifteen years, but didn’t win.

In case anyone wants to watch, it's on CBS on Wednesday nights, which is channel two where I live.

If you’d like to view the players and read the article, click here.

The Lounge

Look at these guys.  Where is the fear factor?  I think most of the critters around here have seen us so much; they’re quite comfortable hanging out in the yard. 

Rabbits on my patio

Here’s another shot of a rabbit that likes to climb rocks.  This is unusual for rabbits, but anything can happen here. 

Enjoying the view

On a sad note, we had a young jackrabbit that hung out in our yard and slept under a tree.  He did this almost every day and would venture across the street to my neighbors too.  Both of us felt so bad when he met his demise last weekend.  We both “knew” him, so it was different than finding a different critter lying in the gutter.

 Our jackrabbit friend gone to the great beyond

He wants to eat my face

Raven has his daily rituals.  When he was a wee kitten, he would bite my toes all the time and attack my feet in bed to get me up.  He wants to eat when he wants to eat.  Period!  He’ll get my attention one way or another.

He always goes to the kitchen and falls over at my feet when I’m cooking dinner.  I have to be very careful so as not to step on him.  My husband did a couple of times and it really freaked him out.  He hid for a long time and wouldn’t come near the kitchen.  If you don’t know he’s there, it’s easy to trip over him.

Now that he’s grown, he still wants to eat NOW when he’s hungry.  I usually get on the computer in the afternoon and once 5 PM rolls around, he comes in and starts bugging the heck out of me.  He stands in front of the computer screen, or lies across my arm and hand so I can’t type or use the mouse.

If that doesn’t work, he starts pawing at the cursor on my computer screen.  Finally, he’ll attack my head, biting and pulling sections of hair out of my hair clip.  He’ll keep this up until I get up to wash his bowl.  Then he falls over at my feet until I get it ready, gently nipping at my toes if I’m not going fast enough.

But he makes me laugh so hard at some of his antics.  I can’t ever be mad if he bites at me.  He’s never doing it in a mean way.  Raven’s a precious little soul.

Are cats better pets than dogs?

All my current babies

Here are ten reasons why it’s better to have a cat.

1. Having multiple cats is much less chaotic than having multiple dogs.

2. Cats fit better in an apartment or small residence.  They can adapt to smaller areas better and best of all, don’t bark.  All that’s needed are clean litter boxes, a scratching post, and window seats for bird watching.

 Raven sharpening up those daggers

 

3. Feeding a cat is cheaper.  Think eight-pound cat versus a fifty-pound dog.

4. Cats will be safer and happy indoors, especially if they have the necessities they need.  A cat would appreciate a cat tree and toys, along with the things mentioned above.  Dogs have to be walked and need the exercise a house or apartment can’t provide.

Tootie - Cats love boxes

 

Raven - Cats love boxes

 

5. Cats don’t bark all night like some dogs do.  I can understand a person having a dog if they live in a remote place and need the protection and barking a dog can provide.  A place in the country will provide the space a dog needs to thrive, it won’t disturb the neighbors with its barking and it can stay outside with a doghouse and plenty of fresh water.

6. Kittens are cuter than puppies, although this is a matter of opinion.

7. Dogs can’t purr.  It’s so good to hear the sweet noise of purring coming from a contented cat.  It’s good therapy for humans to listen to a soft purr.

 Raven and Tootie on the bed

 

8. You can sleep with several cats piled on the bed.  Believe me, I know this well.  How can a human sleep on the bed with a dog, unless it’s a very small dog.

9. Scooping a cat box is better than walking a dog.  A human can handle litter boxes in any kind of weather.  Come rain, snow, or heat, you still have to walk a dog and carry along a sack for its waste.  Scooping a litter box several times a day takes far less time than walking a dog, even if you factor in the time to clean several boxes once a week.

 Even a piece of paper is a toy

 

10. Cats will pee and poop in a litter box and cover it up.  They’re good housekeepers.  Dogs poop all over people’s yards, on sidewalks and on the street.  If the owner doesn’t clean I up, it draws flies and is left there for anyone to step in.  Dogs have also been known to eat poop if there’s something lacking in their diet.  I haven’t personally known a dog that did this, but if I did, it would to the vet ASAP for an evaluation.

To read this entire article, click here:

Always honoring my cats

My cats - the picture that's cut off is a collage

This is the cat wall in my office.  Every cat that comes to live with me gets a picture on this wall.  The pictures move with me from house to house and state to state.  I think they all deserve to be honored even if they’ve passed on to another plane.

It makes me happy looking at all their pictures.  I’m reminded of the crazy things each one has done and the unique personalities they all have.  There will always be cats in my life.  I simply can’t live my life without at least one to share it with.  All of them are special in their own way.

Be careful of old people medicine

Generic for Fosomax

This is a warning for any of you that are older and perhaps will be prescribed medication you didn’t know you needed.  Such is the case with me.  Until I became old enough for Medicare about three months ago, I didn’t know I had osteoporosis in my back.  They discovered this in a Dexa scan (a bone density test).  This test is among many you get free as a welcome and wellness visit when you sign up for Medicare.

This innocent test was only the beginning of the horrors to come.  Things haven’t been the same for me since getting on a prescription that’s supposed to grow stronger bones.  I’ve felt like I’ve aged at least twenty years.  I’ve been achy and nauseated and that’s disrupted my sleeping and eating.  If I can get any food down, I get severe heartburn so I’ve stocked up on antacids and some ginger ale, which is very good for nausea.  I hate to drink so much soda and haven’t since this was my go-to drink for the hot flashes some years ago.  My hands are so cramped these days.  I can’t even pick up a glass of water.  It’s ridiculous to find myself in such a circumstance.

My doctor and I had quite a discussion about all of this with him assuring me things will get better.  I’m beyond taking anymore of this medicine because I can’t function and I let him know in so many words.  I’m certain there’s something in there that’s disagreeing with me and I’m not touching it with a ten-foot pole.  The jury is still out as to what will be the substitute now.  At this point, I’m ready to take my chances with breaking a bone.

 Generic for Fosomax - Beware if your doctor ever wants to give you this

 

I’ve been fortunate to be a well person most of my life and if I’d never gone for this test, I wouldn’t be any the wiser now.  I eat right and exercise.  Frankly, I can’t afford to try another medicine that may have the same effect.  I need a guarantee for any future prescriptions because I have a job to consider now and it was hard to come by.  I don’t intend to jeopardize that.

Logic tells me that I’ve had this condition for some time and I’ve fallen many a time onto the rocks in the backyard, or the patio, and never hurt myself.  This usually happens every winter around here when the weather is beyond horrible and plants have to be taken care of when a strong north wind is blowing.

There’s no doctor on the planet that’s going to give me a guarantee of not having a reaction to something.  I’m certainly old enough to know that.  I think I’ll be looking around and researching for natural alternatives.  If I find anything, I’ll let you know, for anyone wishing to do the same.

The most sociable boy I know

Raven and Snuggles

I’m talking about Raven and his love of play dates with the cat across the street.  But it’s not only play dates, this cat comes running when I get the carrier out of the garage.  He can’t get inside fast enough once I open the door.  I’ve never known a cat that liked to go so much and I’ve had cats all my life.

I must be crazy carrying him across the street in the triple-digit heat, but I can’t deny him all the pleasure he gets out of visiting.  Raven has put on some weight and is no longer a kitten, so this task isn’t as easy as it used to be, but I try to take him over to my neighbor’s at least once when I’m watching her cat while she’s gone on one of her hiking and camping trips.

Raven and Snuggles

This boy even relishes going to the vet.  Imagine that.  I have to chase the others down when it’s time for a vet visit.

I have to mention Raven’s a good boy and always knows when it’s time to say goodbye.  He’ll get in the carrier on his own with no prompting from me.  The problem is he refuses to get out once I get home because I think he’s afraid he’ll miss going somewhere else.  I’ve never seen anything like this behavior before.  He usually spends the night in the carrier.  When he’s busy eating breakfast the next day, I can return the carrier to the garage.

 Raven

Do any of you have animals that love to go places?

Why can’t humans leave things alone?

Lava bed destruction

In this instance, I’m talking about the never-ending building that’s going on here.  We have many houses in the area that are still sitting vacant from the 2004-2006 building boom. These homes have never sold.  Why are they building more residences?  It makes no sense to me, especially when they’re destroying the lava beds to make it happen.

It’s true they take some of the lava rock they blast out to make nice walls around these developments, but it burns me up that they can destroy something that we’ll never get back.  The volcanoes around us are dormant cinder cones now.  These old lava flows are thousands of years old.  They are a beautiful thing to see, the pitch black against the red sand and rocks.

So we’re going from this to this.

Before picture

 After picture

The whole landscape is changing so the developers can make bundles of money by asking exorbitant prices for these new homes.  The natural beauty of the land is slowly disappearing, along with the natural habitat for the quail, jackrabbits, chipmunks and other critters that call this home.  It makes me grateful that we have many parks here where the land is protected from all this destruction.

But I wonder if this will always be the case because the state park, about two miles from us, now has homes along the upper rim.  The homes in this development sell for several million dollars each because they have a nice view of the park below.  This developer is another one who has since gone bankrupt and there are few homes sold in that development and quite a few vacant ones along with vacant lots.

Lava bed destruction

Of course, I’m only one person and I can’t do much about any of this, although I suspect a few people here feel this way.  You can’t stop progress and I wouldn’t want to, but I don’t think humankind should destroy things for the sake of building either.  That’s my two cents.  What do you think about such matters?

A Winning Combination

Raven

I just had to post some of these photos of Raven and a paper sack we brought home from the market.  He’s having so much fun with this that you’d think it was a million dollar toy. 

 Raven

It took him about a week to destroy the first paper bag, so we got him another a few days ago.  He seems to like this better than the “cat sack” we bought at a cat show in California years ago.  The price of this one is certainly better – FREE.

 Raven

Enjoy the photos.  I bet you knew I couldn’t go long without posting cat pictures.

Raven

Have a great upcoming Labor Day everyone.  Is it really September already?