Golden Retrievers

Golden Retrievers are large dogs, males are usually 70 pounds, and females are 60 pounds on average.  Originally bred in Scotland in the 1850s, they were used to retrieve ducks and other waterfowl (hence the name).  The modern Golden Retriever is a family dog due to their “gentle giant” disposition, passive personalities, and their trainability.  My family has never owned one before, but I hear they are great pets.  Golden Retrievers have a range of colors, from white to gold to a deep red.  Golden Retrievers are often portrayed as responsible, talented dogs, such as in Air Bud™, or Homeward Bound™.  

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Retriever

https://canna-pet.com/golden-retriever-temperament-personality-2/

How To Train a Cat

One of my cats, Rocket, has been taught to sit, stand on his hind legs, lay down, and high-five.  In this short essay, I will teach you how to train your cat to do a few simple tricks.  The first trick I taught him was the high-five/shake, because Rocket is so motivated by food, this trick was a piece of cake.  First, let your cat smell the treat, so it is interested.  Then hover the food out of reach until your cat paws at it (use a clicker or other training device once the cat paws at it), give the cat its treat.  Do not say “Shake” or “High-five” yet because if the cat thinks that barely lifting its paw is a shake, it will continue to do that  without changing.  Grab the cat’s paw once it is high enough for a shake, or touch your hand to its paw for a “high-five”, then say “high-five” or “shake” to associate the word with the action.  The next trick was “sit”, one of my “purr-sonal” favorites.  All you have to do is put the treat above the cat’s head, and it will probably sit.  This was the easiest trick for Rocket to learn because of the simplicity of it.  Once your cat has got down the sitting part, you can say “sit” and reward him with the treat.  After “sit”, he learned “lay down”.  He still has trouble with this trick, sometimes, but usually does it correctly.  First, make your cat “sit”, then lure him forward and down with a treat.  (If need be, push on your cat’s back gently to coax it onto it’s belly).  The final trick that Rocket knows is “sit on your hind legs” I couldn’t find anything that makes more sense other than “human sit” or “meerkat sit”.  Let your cat sit, then entice them onto their back paws.  Rocket can only do three seconds standing up, but I’m still impressed with my little circus cat.  I hope you enjoy teaching your cat because it is very stimulating for them to learn new things.  If you are feeling adventurous, watch the videos below and try to learn some of the tricks! ↓

Our Trip to The St. Petersburg City Theatre

On the 9th of December, Ella, my Mom, my Dad, Cousin Thomas, and Aunt Norma went to the St. Petersburg City Theatre to see the play, A Christmas Carol.  Everyone in the cast did a great job acting, and for someone who was never seen, A Christmas Carol, it was very intriguing.  If you are interested in watching a play at this theatre, click the link below for their website. ↓

http://www.spcitytheatre.org/

 

Clam Bayou

On the 25th of November 2018 I went to Clam Bayou, which is a fun nature park between St.Petersburg and Gulfport.  Walking around a few paths and docks didn’t take very long but was pretty fun.  We saw pelicans, mullet, baitfish, horseshoe crabs, a turtle and herons.  It is a cool area to check out for a few hours, so if you go there, bring your family.  You can see boats at the marina close by too, if your into that.  I really liked going to Clam Bayou because I was tired and it was an interesting trip.  If you want to go there, click here for the link on Google Maps.

 

Soxs’ Cookies

Hello! Soxs here, I have started up a new company.  It’s called (drumroll, please), Sox’s Cookies!  Everyone loves cookies, but they can be very unhealthy, so I decided to sell organic cookies that everyone can eat (except for bad people, they don’t deserve cookies).  The ingredients are ⇓.

Coconut flour, coconut oil, organic diced peaches, organic honey, cage-free eggs, spinach, 85% dark carob, coconut flakes, crushed macadamia nuts, avocado, and cinnamon.

Doesn’t that sound delicious?  Now, I will show you the ingredients for the yucky, artificial, un-touchable cookies that I found at the store. Here they are, if you REALLY want to see them ⇓.

Enriched white flour, granulated sugar, eggs, peanut and vegetable oil, chocolate morsels, red 40, blue 1, and yellow 40.

Plus, 50% of my profits go to furball research all over the country!  And these cookies aren’t small either, at a diameter of 8 inches, there is plenty to share.  So do yourself a favor, go eat a Soxs’ Cookie!

 

Turkeys!

The wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, is recognized as the classic American Thanksgiving bird, but some species of turkeys are found in Mexico and Australia!  Turkeys are found all over the U.S, the most common is the Eastern Wild Turkey, which is found in (I bet you guessed it!) the eastern United States.  They live in all environment from dense woody areas to swampland, turkeys are not choosy about where they live, they just care about food.  Speaking of food, turkeys are not picky eaters, in the wild they eat grasshoppers, grains, beechnut, acorns, blackberries, etc.  Turkeys are often seen as “dumb” creatures, but they have a really bad reputation.  They have to keep moving their head to focus on an image, making them look very distracted, but it is the exact opposite.  Turkeys are very social creatures and flocks (I really want to change “flock” into “gobble”) are comprised of at least 30 adult turkeys in rut season!  During mating season (late March to early April) the female turkey can lay 8 to 12 eggs, the female turkey can only lay one egg per day, though.

What Is a Group of Wild Turkeys Called?

http://thesportsglobe.com/wildlife/turkey/eastern-wild-turkey/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)

 

 

Jack London

I am a huge fan of Jack London’s writing because it deals with the nature of animals and humans.  Many of London’s books are based in frigid Alaska, where all living creatures fight for survival.  Jack London was born on January 12th, 1876 in San Francisco, California.  His parents are William Chaney, who was an attorney, but also studied astrology, and Flora Wellman, who was a teacher.  William Chaney was not a father figure for Jack, leaving Flora when she was pregnant.  London had an average childhood for the time.  His family was working class, however, they lived comfortably.  London even had a mutt named Rollo.  After quitting high school, Jack became homeless.  In 1884 he was sentenced to a month in prison for the charge of vagrancy.  In 1894, he joined Coxey’s Army, which was a group of unemployed workers who marched for the government to make new jobs.  After being homeless, he decided to go back to school.  He joined Oakley High School but never graduated.  Later he joins the Universtity of California, Berkley for one year, then headed north for the Gold Rush in the Yukon.  After getting scurvy, he went back home to California, where he began writing.  His most famous books are The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Sea-Wolf, all of which are based on his experience in the Yukon.  His death is a controversy, some believe his death was caused by Renal Colic (kidney stones and complications).  Others think he overdosed on morphine, leading to a suicide.  All that is certain is that he died on November 22nd, 1916 in Glen Ellen, California.

My favorite of his books is The Call of the Wild, which is about a dog named Buck, who not only watches his freinds brutally murdered, but also becomes alpha through brute force.  I liked this book the most because it shows the hardships some animals (including humans) go through to stay alive.

Sources :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London

https://www.biography.com/people/jack-london-9385499

http://jacklondonpark.com/jack-london-biography.html

Click to access jl-death.pdf

How to Make a Salad

First, prepare your ingredients, keep in mind their different flavors, colors, textures, aromas.  Some of my favorite things to put in a salad are radishes, apples, carrots, lettuce, and chicken.  Don’t be afraid to experiment, how will you know if turkey and banana taste good together if you don’t try?  Be creative with this step because contrasting tastes make a salad spark with deliciousness.  Then I recommend choosing your tools; graters, knives, chopping boards, and kitchen scissors will all help you prepare the components of the salad.  Remember, keep your knives sharp for safety and for ease of use.  Now, mince, shred, peel, grind, slice, or cube your pieces of fruit, meat, cheese, nuts and berries to your liking, keep all of the food in bitesize amounts.  Now, before you add the dressing or sauce, choose whether you want a hot, cold , or room temperature salad.  Wilted salads are scrumpsious when the weather is cold, whereas chilled salads are very refreshing during summer.  Dressing is a great way to add flavor and texture to a salad, my favorites are ranch and blue cheese.  There are so many different types of dressing, it can be hard to choose just one.  To narrow down flavors, I recommend pairing your dressing with the flavors of the salad.  If you are going for a fruit salad I would use a dressing with honey or stevia.  Next, toss your salad, (this is important for balanced flavors).  The final step is to serve the salad, enjoy!

Cause and Effect

If I procrastinate on my homework during the day, I have less time to spend taking care of my cats or doing chores.  Because I procrastinated on my homework, I forgot to trim my cat’s nails. So they scratched on the walls and furniture all night, which kept my mom up all night.  Because my mom was tired, she was grumpy the next day, I felt bad.  Because I didn’t feel great, I was distracted with my homework.

This is cause and effect, when you do something, the outcome could be bad or good based on your action.

 

The “Purr”fect Dragons

The cats were out on their daily walk around the garden when they spotted lizards!  They loved tasty lizards and gobbled them up.  Unbeknownst to them, they were not ordinary lizards, they were baby dragons.  The next day was completely normal for the entire household:  the kids did their homework, the parents did paperwork, and the cats napped and played.  Early the following morning as the birds chirped, the cat’s backs sprouted two, scaly, blue wings and acquired the magical ability to breathe fire!  With a surge of supernatural need for adventure, they both break through a window, and started to fly away.  They decided to soar to a nearby beach, because Rocket forgot to do his “business” before they left.  He has always thought of himself as a connoisseur, pre”fur”ing soft Florida sand to unrefined store-bought litter.  Some sunbathers witnessed the two flying fuzzballs as Rocket was spewing fire out of his unlatched jaws.  One person yelled “Ew! it smells like rotting fish and tooth decay!” another screamed “Take shelter!”.  The cats slammed into the beach, sand flying everywhere, nearly missing the tired swimmers.  Rocket was embarrassed by the amateur landing, he decided to post-pone his bathroom break, so he rolled over and mewed, hoping to get a belly scratch and some sympathy.  His purrs echoed like a volcanic eruption.  Eventually, dozens military vehicles that reeked of catnip pulled up the parking lot.  Several soldiers trotted down the beach and started to rub the cats with the most high-quality, potent, freshest catnip out there, Fiesta Gato! (Check it out here). Due to the high dosage of catnip that they consumed, their wings weakened and shriveled up, and fell off.  The soldiers immediately rounded up the cats and the wings with haste, and took them to a secret laboratory, where they discovered that consumed dragon eggs will drastically alter feline DNA…  To date, the only way to reverse the effects of dragon mutated cat DNA is to ingest large amounts of Fiesta Gato.

The End

(P.S They never lost the dragon breath)