Camping with Cats!

My very good friends love to go camping in the summer with their tent trailer. Growing up, our family also camped with a trailer and I quite enjoy the whole camping experience. Now, I can't keep calling them "my friends" so I will call them Tom & Sally and their son Pete (lets hope I don't get confused!). Sally reminded me over Easter, after I told her I had blogged about the "Unfortunate Incident", about the first time Sibu had experienced camping and I thought I should share the story with all of you.

He was not quite one year old when Tom & Sally invited me to go camping with them & Pete to Jasper National Park. Now Sibu is a scaredy cat as I have mentioned before, but he has met Tom & Sally & Pete several times and we have stayed together in Motels and at their house and they at my house etc. Sibu was also quite adjusted to walking on leash and liked to be outside. I traveled to Jasper in my vehicle (from different cities) and met them at the park entrance and we headed off to the camp ground.

Sibu was not about to stay in the car until things were set up, after all Kalon was out and around, he should be too! Fine, so I put him on leash and tied him to a tree that I thought was far enough away from the bustle of setting up camp. Kalon was tied to the tree next to him, but being an old hand at this, he was ignoring the people & trying to catch sight of his first bird or squirrel or elk.

This was later in the evening, but the same tree.

Not my Sibu, he wanted to be wherever I was. Well, I was running back and forth from the truck to the trailer, helping to set things up. We were just about done, the trailer was up and we were looking forward to sitting down & having a drink before starting to make dinner. Pete discovered that Sibu had wound himself up around the tires of the truck and in trying to free him (by coaxing him to reverse his path) bumped the truck. The truck has an alarm on it. My cat was right under the truck. Pete's keys were on the table 20 feet away.

My poor little cat almost hung himself trying to get away from the noise. Once the alarm was stopped and he was untangled he was so scared he was shaking and just couldn't calm down at all. We wound up putting him in the trailer alone for awhile so he could collect himself.

This is after the alarming incident.

Once he showed his face at the door and started to take an interest in things outside, we decided that maybe he should come out and check things out properly. Within about an hour he was as far as his leash would let him go and we had to keep pulling him back to where we could see him. He was chasing night bugs and stalking things in the long grass, listening to the elk calling and then looking for them. He did not want to go to bed when it was time!

Kalon, helping to wash the scare off.

He shied away from Pete the rest of the trip and gave him dirty looks if he came too close, but he didn't object to riding in the offending truck, or getting out and walking the trails with us. Of course, the hair between the pads of his feet collected all the pitch and needles they could and I had to clean them out every time we went into the trailer, or whenever he started to shake his feet as he walked. Which by the way is one of the funniest things to see a cat do!

Since that first time, we have been camping again, but we always keep an eye out for where Sibu is in relation to the truck. He still dashes under vehicles if he is startled, you would think that would be the last place he would dash. Maybe it is just a good thing they have short memories.

I know I shouldn't laugh at the misfortunes of my cat, but sometimes, you just can't help it!

Good Evening all.

Time speeds up

Or at least it seems to. We have all at some point in our lives noticed the phenomenon of this. After all, wasn't it just last month we were celebrating spring, how can it be New Years already? Well, maybe not spring, but you get the picture.

Remember as children, the year seemed to stretch forever, summer especially? You could hardly remember everything you did in the past year, you were able to do so much more than you can now.

You managed to get in skating and making snow forts having snow ball fights, making snow angels, then before you were tired of that, you got to see the snow melt away. Then you were anxiously awaiting clear roads so you could get your bike out and the freedom that gave you. You explored the trees across the road, down by the reservoir where you waited for the pussy willows to show up and looked for wild crocuses in the field.

Then there came summer! Wow, you could spend hours in the cool shade of the trees by the water, finding driftwood and the odd bottle or bottle cap. You could walk over to the swimming pool, the reservoir was dangerous, you didn't swim there because a neighbourhood child drowned there. If you didn't feel like either of those, the schoolyard was a couple blocks away and they had jungle gyms and monkey bars! The real ones, not these mamby pamby things kids play on nowadays! Nothing but good hard packed dirt if you fell! And boy was it hard!

If you had a quarter, you could walk to the corner store which was on the other side of the school yards and get a pop, then take the bottle back and with the refund and the change left over from the pop, you could buy candy.

At some point over the summer, the Wally Byam Caravan would pull into town and take over the two schoolyards! I don't know if I spelled the name correctly, I think so. It was a group of campers that traveled together and they would set up for a few days each summer and then be gone! They were mostly from the U.S. but I think there were a few from Canada as well. My Sister and I (as shy as we were) would go and look at all the different trailers and license plates from all the different states. We would marvel over the Airstreams, they were so shiny and pretty and we would even meet some people.

There was so much to do in summer, you looked for garter snakes in the field, we even found one once and where one had shed it's skin. You had to look for those stink bombs too! Sing silly songs and learn to call seagulls, make squeaky noises with the long grass and try to learn to whistle with your fingers.

Then the days would get shorter and colder and mom would take us shopping for school clothes and we would start school. You would help make your costume for hallow e'en and run around getting candy, quite often in snow, certainly in the cold. Then you would start in on making snow angles and forts and having snow ball fights. Help with decorating the house for Christmas and shopping and baking and getting out of the way for Mom and Dads big party! The party was held between Christmas and New Years and involved all the musicians Mom & Dad knew. My sister covered the party in more detail in her blog over at Bag Lady's Blather.

That was what a year used to be like, now it is more like:

Winter, grumble, grumble, hate cold.
Spring finally! Damn more snow! Start seeds, plant seeds.
Water plants, deadhead flowers, wish you had a house again.
Oh, was that summer, put away the outdoor furniture.
Winter, ugg Christmas crowds! I'm not ready! It is New Years!


So, how fast does the year change for you?

Happy New Year everyone, I hope it is all you want it to be and more.

Good Morning.