Camping Cats and Geocaching Dogs

Meet our Motley Crew

Abigail

Abigail

Abigail is the only female out of four cats and is quite the little princess.  She and her four siblings came to us in June of 2010, as a litter of kittens we emergency rescued.  She's been with us since she was four weeks old. She  started camping four days after joining our family and has been camping with us ever since. She & I have an especially close bond.  She follows me everywhere and never fails to answer when I speak to her.  She is definitely ALL girl and likes to be treated accordingly. I absolutely adore her.

To read about their rescue, please visit HERE.

Abigail at 6 weeks old.

One of her favorite places to nap

Muggle

Our beautiful boy.

Muggle is Abigail's littermate brother so his story is very similar to hers.  He's a gorgeous Lynx Point Siamese Mix.  He's our other camping cat.  Muggle is the cool cat in the house.  He's tough, but not mean. He's kinda like 'The Fonz' and has an amazing personality.  He's a great cat and we love him very much.

Resting on the bed in our travel trailer.  He's tired from a hard day of camping.

Muggle at 5 months old on a camping trip to Oregon.

Their favorite thing about camping is bird watching from the travel trailer.
They never, ever leave the house without their harnesses and I.D.  All our pets are microchipped.

People often ask about camping with cats,  To read how WE camp with our cats and how careful we are to keep them safe, please visit this Blog post.


Cache

Our daughter, Tracy, rescued our 'two brothers.'  Cache & Willie were born in a litter of five to a feral mother. They were found when they were tiny, under a shed, in June of 2008.  

Tracy and her friend were visiting a co-worker and were told that one kitten had been killed by a raccoon.  When my daughter left she took two kittens home with her and her friend took the other two.  They were worried the raccoon would return for the remaining kittens. Tracy couldn't keep the kittens in her apartment so my husband & I took them.  We've had the brothers since they were about eight weeks old.

Cache is our 'Man in Black.' He is our "pretty boy."  He always seems to feel the need to be neat and tidy.  Whatever he's doing, he often stops to groom  and straighten his hair.  He's a good boy and minds well. If we scold him for something, he scolds us right back and lets us know he doesn't appreciate being spoken to that way. He gets along well with the others, but seems to feel he's a class above them.  He doesn't play directly with them.  He sits back and watches them when they play. Sometimes I don't think he feels their behavior is dignified enough for a good cat.

His favorite thing in life is a laser pointer.  He lives for it. 

His favorite spot on hot days.

Willie

Willie is Cache's litter brother.  He is the sweetest cat ever, but he's also my mischievous one.  If I turn my back, he is in to something. Most of his antics are cute.  I do have to watch him with Abigail.  He's a bit of a bully with her.  She runs from him, so....he chases her. He thinks it's a big game.  He thinks it's fun.  She DOES NOT!!!!  When we're not home, they are separated.

Sadly, we didn't start traveling with Cache & Willie when they were kittens and now they want no part of it.  If they liked it, we'd take them all.

I call Willie our $1000 cat. In Oct., 2010, Willie had an episode with struvite crystals.  That's a urinary blockage.  They literally can't urinate. This is extremely painful & can be fatal. I rushed him to the vet immediately.  Our vet said we caught it at the very beginning of the blockage. Thank goodness because otherwise he would have been much worse off.  After several days at the vet clinic, with an I.V. and catheter, he was well and back to his old self.

I have always blamed this problem on dry cat food.

Our cats eat only high quality wet food.  I rotate between quality brands to help insure balanced nutrition.  Occasionally, I give them a small handful of dry food as a treat.  I only do this because they love it.  Dry food is NOT part of their regular diet. 

I don't believe dry food is healthy for cats. Cats have a low thirst drive.  They don't drink nearly the water they should.  A natural feline diet has a high water content.  A cat fed a diet of dry cat food is often slightly dehydrated.    

Urinary tract problems, kidney disease and Diabetes are all common problems seen in our cats. I believe the constant state of slight dehydration and the high carbohydrate intake of a cat on a dry diet causes many of the health issues our pet cats suffer with.  Many vets feel this way.

I always try to share Willie's story with other cat owners in the hopes they will avoid feeding dry cat food to their babies.  Our vet bill to save Willie was $993.45.  We could have easily lost him.  He absolutely would have died a painful death without good vet care.  He was so worth it.  We love him. 

For more information on cat nutrition, please visit The Cat Info Site.  It's a wonderful site for cat lovers.

Willie & Cache at 8 weeks old.

Britt

  

Britt is actually another of Tracy's rescues.  In 2002, Tracy was shopping at a Walmart store with her grandmother.  There was a woman standing in front of the store with a four month old Lab/pit bull puppy.  The woman told my daughter the puppy would be going to the pound that afternoon if she wasn't adopted before then.  

Tracy immediately got in contact with Don & I and begged us to let her bring the puppy home.  She figured I could find the puppy a home.  After all, she is only a "little" puppy.  Imagine my surprise when she showed up with a four month old puppy who was already forty pounds.LOL 

Britt lived with us for a total of two days before we were all attached to her.  She had found her new home.  She truly is the best dog ever.  It breaks my heart that dogs this great die in shelters everyday.

Britt is a true geohound.  She lives for camping & geocaching.  That's what life is all about.  Don, Britt & I all started caching in 2006. She loves all the hiking involved.  She even has her own geocache.  It's called, 'Britt's Dog Day Afternoon.'

For anyone wondering about Geocaching.... It's a outdoor treasure hunting game using a GPS device.  Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. It's super fun and you meet a lot of nice people.

For anyone wanting more information about Geocaching, please visit this site.

Britt camping in Eastern Washington.

Laya

Laya is fairly new to us.  She's been with us about a year. 

She belonged to my mother-in-law. When my dear mother-in-law passed away, nobody wanted Laya so Don & I brought her home with us.

We've had a few issues to overcome, but things are going well. Her biggest issue was snapping at the cats in a pretty aggressive manner.  There is no way that can ever work out in our home. Everyone must get along.  I EXPECT it. She consistently got corrected for that.   Luckily for all of us, it's been a long time since that has been a problem.  She does very well with the cats now.  

In the back seat of the Tundra & ready for a road trip.  

  

When Laya first joined our household, she was afraid of absolutely everything. I think the camping and geocaching has done a lot for her issues.  She's been more socialized and has gained some self confidence.  She loves traveling and hiking.

She has her own camping chair and loves it.

 She had never seen the beach before moving in with us.  She loves it.  She never stops running when she's loose on the beach.

She is fitting in well and enjoying life.

 We also live with three really beautiful cockatiels.  Two are Lutinos & one is a Pied.  They're fun and we enjoy them. 

Well, that's the gang. I hope you enjoyed meeting them.  Please send me photos and stories of your camping or geocaching cats & dogs.  Or, send me stories about any pets at all.  I'd love to see and hear about your fur-kids.

Thanks for stopping by.  -- Jan♥♥

Cats -- Trap, Neuter & Release, (TNR)

Cat Lovers!!!!

Please help spread this information so people everywhere will learn what a tipped ear means. 

Trap, Neuter & Release. (TNR)

It's universal.

It prevents births and saves lives.

I'm Ear Tipped.  This means someone took the time to get me neutered and vetted.

Please leave me where I am so their efforts are not in vain.

Life by Keith Richards

I actually listened to the audio version of this book.  It was read by the always amazing Johnny Depp with the help of Joe Hurley.  At times, it featured Keith Richards.

I love, love, love this book. It was a fun walk down memory lane for me. 

The book begins with Keith’s life as a bullied child in England.  His music loving mother bought him his first guitar when he was 15 years old.  While in his teens, he fell in love with Rhythm & blues. In his book, he talks of meeting Mick Jagger, the formation of the Rolling Stones and their glamorous lives as rock stars.  He candidly talks about the good and bad. 

Each chapter is filled with the crazy antics of these amazingly talented ‘outlaw’ rock stars. I remember most of their crazy antics from following their lives through Rolling Stone and other magazines that focused on rock music & the lives of music entertainers.  They were the best of the best. 

I’ve been a huge stones fan as long as I can remember and Keith has always been my favorite. The first rock LP I ever bought myself was ‘Made in the Shade.’  I bought the rest of their albums, one by one, as quickly as I could save my allowances.  I had to own them all. 

Reading every chapter, with the familiar and well loved song lyrics, brought a flood of memories of long passed California summers, favorite friends, pool parties & afternoons at the beach.  I enjoyed every minute of it.

This book is a must for all stones fans.  It’s too much fun to miss it.  I rarely read the same book twice.  I believe this will be an exception.  For me, once will not be enough.

A Pirate's Life in Ocean Shores, Wa.

What an amazing weekend.

 Pirates, wenches & mermaids came from far & wide to join the fun in beautiful Ocean Shores, Wa.  This weekend was a fund raiser to support the Ocean Shores Food Bank & PAWS of Ocean Shores. There was 565 pounds of food collected over this weekend.  

Don & I arrived Friday afternoon, January 25th.  We had a third floor suite at the Best Western Lighthouse.

It was a beautiful room with a full ocean view and fireplace.  

The view from our balcony.

After unpacking, we drove down to our favorite Ocean Shores hangout, The Galway Bay Irish Pub.

 The menu includes traditional Irish food.  If you've never eaten there, by all means, give it a try. We love the place.  The pub's musical guests were a Irish Celtic band called Bowi.  I'd heard good things about them & was pleased to have the chance to see them live. They're very talented people.  It was a lot of fun.

Saturday was all about pirates....

 We were up bright and early Saturday morning for the Pirate Gear & Garb Swap Meet.  There was all kinds of pirate & wench goodies for sale including, weapons, clothing & jewelry.  It's always fun.

The highlight of the morning for me was the opportunity to have photos taken by Randy Foster.  I was so excited he was there.  I've admired his work for a long time, especially his photographs of pirates & mermaids.  He's truly amazing.  He and his wife, Sandy are such nice people.  The more I learn about them, the more I realize how truly special they are.  I feel lucky to have had the chance to get acquainted with them both.

(We didn't have our portraits when I wrote this blog.  Please visit HERE to see them.)

From noon to 2pm, the Rogue Mermaids took over the swimming pool.  They were fun to watch.  They're handmade mermaid tail are gorgeous.  There must have been fifteen mermaids in the water together.  Each tail was unique from the others. Beautiful.

At 2:30, we had our group photo.

What a fantastic group of people.

Next was the pub crawl.....Yay!!   We visited three local Ocean Shores Pub.  All three have a pirate feel to the atmosphere.  We stopped at The Pirate's Cove, The Porthole Pub & The Galway Bay Iriish Pub.
.

We played a treasure hunting game at all three pubs.  I think most pirates won a prize or two.  I won a box of chocolate candy. Don won a rum cake.  The rum cake was quite yummy.

All these treasure maps were rolled by Pirates Dan & Carrie.  At last count I heard they rolled over 1800.  That's quite a lot of their time.  I hope they know how much everyone appreciates them.

Debbie, myself & Mark

We had dinner again at The Galway Bay Pub with our friends Mark, Debbie & Scott.  I love, love, love the freshly baked soda bread & Magner's Cider Beer at the Galway.  Good stuff.

The Pirate's Ball started a 8:00.  There was live music & lots to eat & drink. Everyone was dressed in their pirate best.  There was lots of dancing & laughing as everyone said hello to old friends and new.

Don & I at the Pirate's Ball on Saturday night.  We had a great time.

Beverly, Rachel & Monty

Singing Pirate Tugboat Bromberg

Pirates & wenches at the ball.

Beautiful mermaids Iona & Meghan in land attire.

Gunpowder Gerdie--She always looks amazing.

Todd & Melissa.  I love her skirt.

And.........Death.

Lots of people put hours of hard work into making this fabulous pirate event a success.  It's one of our very favorite annual events.  We would never miss this one.  I hope each and every person knows how much their work and time is appreciated.  The whole weekend was a huge success.  We can't wait for next year.

Thanks so much for stopping by. -- Jan ♥♥

Our Camping Cats

Don & I camp often.  Our travel trailer is our second home.  We would much rather vacation with our travel trailer than stay in motel rooms.  We like our own bedding, our space & to have our pets with us.

When we travel, we're joined by our two dogs & two camping cats.  Our dogs live to camp and our cats are as comfortable in our travel trailer as they are at home.

Our two camping cats were from a litter we rescued in April, 2010.  They were five weeks old.  We had a camping trip four days later.  All five kittens made their first camping trip to Seaquest State Park, near Mt. St. Helens,  in April, 2010.   Abigail & Muggle have been camping ever since.

Abigail & Muggle

Our cats are house cats.  They NEVER go outside.  This works well because they are perfectly content to spend their time in the travel trailer.  They have no desire to venture outside and are perfectly happy to see the outside from within.

Muggle & Abigail are hardcore bird enthusiasts. Here they are bird watching in Spokane, Wa.

 

Lupine 1/2"  H-Style Pet Harness  

They both wear break-away collars with I.D. tags at all times, at home or on the road.  When we travel, they wear Lupine cat harnesses with I.D tags & matching leashes.  I've tried other harnesses.  I definitely like these the best. I feel secure with the double clip style.  Harness design is important.  Some figure eight type harnesses tighten around the neck if any part of the harness is pulled on or tangled.  That's very dangerous for the cat.

Petmate Ultra Vari Kennel, Pets up to 15 Pounds,

Each cat travels in their own kennel in the back seat of our Toyota Tundra.  They have comfy bedding in their crates, but no cat box.  If need be, we can move them to the travel trailer for potty breaks.  They do very well with this.  We have never had a potty accident in the truck.  Ever.

Once we arrive at our destination, they're turned loose in the travel trailer.

Abigail

We always travel with a variety of cat toys.  During the day, our bed doubles for the kitty toy land.

Muggle

All our cats are micro-chipped for added protection.

BestPet Black 30" Three-Door Suitcase Style Metal Dog Crate - 30"(l) x 21"(w) x 24"(h)

A permanent part of our travel equipment are two BestPet 30" folding metal crates.  These crates are wonderful & economical. They're under $40.00, after shipping. The 30 inch crate is large enough for a cat box and a kitty bed.    We have water bowls that clip to the sides. We don't use the crates too often. In fact, Abigail never uses hers, but they're great to have if we need them.

It does take some extra effort to travel with cats. Our cats are a huge part of our vacation trips.  It's definitely worth the effort for us. I can't imagine going without them.  Half the fun of going is being able to take them with us.  They're our babies.

BUT....Please....be careful.

We only encourage traveling with your cats if you're well prepared with the proper equipment.  It would be awful to be on vacation and loose your cat far from home. It's worth spending a little extra money to be safe.  

We also don't encourage traveling with cats that will be stressed by the trip.  We have two other cats, Cache & Willie, that stay home with a family member when we travel .  They have never traveled and car rides are stressful for them.  In a case like this, it's better to leave them home. You'll have a better time, and so will they.

Best wishes to all out cat loving friends.

If you have stories about camping with your cats, please share them with us.  We love to hear from others that camp with their cats.

Thanks for stopping by. --Jan♥♥