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! ↓

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!

 

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

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.

 

What we did this week

Chassahowitzka River Campground – 9/17/18 – 9/19/18

Haslams Bookstore – 9/19/18

Sawgrass Lake Park – 9/20/18

Weeki Wachee – 9/22/18

The Georgia Trip

After driving 10 hours with The Wilsons and our family, we reached our first destination, Neel(s) Gap, which is part of the grueling Appalachian Trail .  Read more about Neel(s) Gap day hikes here.  I really enjoyed the view of the towering mountains over the lush, green trees.  Then we drove for about 30 minutes and arrived at our cabin in Happy Hollow.  Our cabin’s name was Whispering Forest, the mountain it rested on had a blanket of ferns and was sprinkled with hydrangeas and other trees. Here is a state park near our camp.  The first thing all the kids did was to start unpacking and figuring out the sleeping issue.  There was four kids, Ella, Autumn, Hunter, and I and only two beds.  We decided we would take turns with kids in beds and kids on couches and then switch.  After we took in our surroundings, we decided to make forts on the steep, overgrown mountain side.  Hunter and my fort ended up as a pile of sticks, which were later used for the fires that we made.  Afterwards we played for most of the day, my favorite part was exploring the calm and shadowy creek.  I woke up the next day very eager to go on a 2 mile hike up and down a mountain to see a waterfall.  As the water was crashing harshly over the slick stones, I spotted two people on the rocks.  I knew they weren’t supposed to be there, I thought they would have fallen, but to my surprise, they didn’t.  After we trudged back up the mountain, we headed straight to our cabin for lunch.  Then when it became dusk my Dad taught Hunter and I how to make a fire.  I was missing my cats when the S’mores were ready and as I fell asleep that night, I dreamt of their silky coats and fluffy tails.  On the third day we went to a German-style town called Helen. Check out other things to do in Helen  I really enjoyed walking around the town square.  Helen felt like a little German town, which reminded me of the time we lived in Germany and enjoyed the culture.  The next day we went to Pappy’s Trading Post to go tubing, I thought it had a weird vibe, but floating down the leisurely river was very relaxing.  Here is a link to Pappy’s Tubing.  A few hours after we got back, Hunter and I made an insect-sized hiking area called Hydrangea-Range, because it was covered in pink and blue hydrangeas.  We created an elaborate miniature hiking trail while Ella and Autumn took a turn to make the fire.  The next day The Wilsons (Autumn, Hunter and their parents) and our family went on a hike near our cabin, but I had to turn back because my shoe fell apart, my arch and ankle kept letting out and Hunter stepped in scat.  My mom, Hunter and I found our way through the thick forest back to the cabin while the others kept on the trail.  We enjoyed a game of Trivial Pursuit on the balcony while the hikers explored a crashed car at the end of the trail.  As evening approached,  the kids went out to collect firewood for our second fire of this trip.  My favorite part of that night, was tasting S’mores made with peanut butter cups instead of chocolate bars…gooey goodness.  Our last day was my favorite because we went to a heritage festival in Blairsville.  Learn more about Mountain Heritage Festival by clicking this link.  There were hand carved bowls, wooden clocks, hand-made wooden toys, and much more.  My favorite small business was an ice-cream truck, and all of the ice-cream was hand-made.  They had peach ice-cream but it was all sold out, so I opted for a chocolate root beer float.  I’ve never had a chocolate root beer float, and it was really good.  The next morning we only had an hour to pack.  On the drive home Josh, Hunter and Autumns dad, invented a game he called “Survive It”, basically every player writes down ten good things to have in the survival situation game and ten bad things that could happen.  Once everyone has written down each of their things on paper you tear them up and put the pieces in a hat, each time you pull a piece of paper you either get an advantage (tool, food, fire, etc) or a challenge (flood, fire, broken wagon, etc).  You start the game with a wagon and an ox and play from there.  The game is not very complex but here is an example where Hunter is the story-teller:  “Okay Thea you got a fallen tree, what do you do?”  I reply with “I will use my axe to chop up the tree so I can continue on the trail”.  We played “Survive It” for four or five hours on our trip taking turns being the story-teller.  This was by far my favorite part of our Labor Day Weekend trip to the north Georgia mountains.

The “Grammies”

If you didn’t already know, Ella and my cats love our Mom, or their Grammy. This is a fictional story about Rocket and Sox’s event to celebrate with their fabulous Grammy. This is a “purrsonal” narrative for Rocket.
I step out of the limo and onto the red carpet, I suavely take off my aviators and kneel down to scratch the sisal-covered velvet rope “fur” the “pawpurratzis”. I stand up and stuff the sunglasses in my pocket. I dart inside to wait for the star of the night, Grammy. The aromas wafting from the sushi bar lead me to its location. I pounce up to the bar, I order a sushi “purrito” stuffed with bluefin tuna, ahi tuna, swordfish, white truffles, siracha mayonnaise, and cream cheese. As I sink my teeth into the humongous meal, all of the juices and flavors poured into my mouth, overwhelming my taste buds. Once Grammy pulls up and steps out of the limo, Soxs and I rush to greet her. She danced towards us like a spring leaf in the wind, her green, fluffy house robe bringing out the green in her eyes, glistening like a green dart frog after a rain. I accidentally spilled some siracha mayonnaise on the robe but I quickly licked it up, only leaving a giant stain behind, I don’t think Grammy noticed. We climb into her pockets and get lots of head scratches and “good boys”. Then we direct her inside, heading into the cat sized theater with one human chair, custom made for Grammy, grabbing more sushi “purritos” on the way. The movie, Grammy: The life of the best person ever, which I directed myself, was a biography of my “favfurite” “purrson”. I was tearing up at the end, but I managed not to cry too much. After the exciting night everyone headed home, including Grammy, and I’m glad she had a good time.

 

Our Trip to Key West and the Kennedy Space Center

Our first stop was the Coral Castle!  I was wowed by how a 100 pound, 5 foot tall adult could carve and place 1,000 tons of coral, by himself!  My favorite sculpture was a coral table shaped like a heart.  Then off  we went, to the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Campground, the name is long, I know, but it was tons of fun!  Most of the water wasn’t good for snorkeling because of its cloudiness.   We had burgers for dinner and afterwards had smores, they were delicious!  Our next stop was the Southernmost Point Buoy, a painted concrete buoy that really is just a tourist trap, it was cool to touch, but we weren’t going to wait 20 minutes in a line for a picture.  The Southernmost Point Bouy isn’t actually the most southern point in the U.S, even though its advertised as such. We saw lots of chickens and iguanas, we even named one iguana Bob the Dentist because he seemed very content on his rock while hordes of people rushed by, like he was a normal human.  We then drove to the Sigsbee Rv Camping area inside of the Naval Air Station Key West.  We were in the front row closest, to the Gulf of Mexico.  The water shone like diamonds and was as clear as the sky.  I saw two barracudas, a few threadfins (bait fish), and a baby leopard shark, which was my favorite because I’ve never seen a leopard shark before.  After a long night’s sleep we solemnly drove back home, I was having fun, and I didn’t want to leave.  After one day of unpacking the camping gear, we decided to do another activity, this one made me feel the best.  On the 19th of Augest we went to our local Elks Lodge and made blankets for homeless veterans.  I was surprised by how much fun I had, I really enjoyed the simplicity of these blankets. After they ran out of blanket materials we spent the rest of the day at the pool.  He headed home after a few hours so we could get a rested, we stayed up later than we should have.  We woke up really early to drive 3 hours all the way to the Kennedy Space Center for our friend’s birthday, his name is Hunter.  I really liked all the relics in the museums and information centers, they even have the Atlantis (a space shuttle) suspended inside of a giant building.  I don’t want to spoil too much though, because seeing the place for yourself is way cooler than me explaining it.  I think my favorite part of our week of adventures was the Kennedy Space Center because of all of the artifacts held in the visitor complex.

Here are the links to the home pages of all of the places we visited in order of first to last ↓

https://coralcastle.com/

http://pennekamppark.com/

http://keywest.com/

https://www.elks.org/lodges/home.cfm?lodgenumber=1224

https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/

 

Our Trip To Pass-A-Grille Beach

Yesterday my family went to Pass a Grill beach for 6 hours!  It was an eventful beach day.  We started the adventure by packing up all of our beach gear:  goggles, fishing poles, nets, snacks, and other items.  Then off to pick up our Uncle Derrick, and our Grandpa.  We drove up to Pass-A-Grille in around 30 minutes and walked down to the beach, our dad warned us of the dangers of the rip current, a rip current or rip tide is a strong force of water than can potentially drown you.  I was scared, but I knew if I was careful I wouldn’t get hurt.  I started by swimming and looking at seashells, I even brought some of my favorites to my Mom so she could enjoy them.  Afterwards, I decided to fish, I caught a few minnows and I threw them to some egrets, because I had no use for them.  I was walking halfway down the small pier when someone had been caught by the riptide!  He got up with the assistance of a rope someone had thrown him.   He had a few minor cuts from the rocks, but otherwise was ok.  I ran to our beach bag to get the first aid kit, but of course, it wasn’t there.  I managed to get a thick wad of tissue paper and some baby wipes and hurried up the beach to help.  After we had helped him, we went back to the beach to chill out for a few minutes in the sand.  I had a chug of lemonade and went back in the water with a net to catch minnows.  At first I didn’t know what I was doing, but soon got the hang of it.  Through trial and error, I learned to first locate a big school and then slam the net in the middle of the school so the ones closest would swim into the net.  I caught a few and fed most of them to a Great Blue Heron that my sister had named Drew.  Me and my dad went near the rocks to look for fish, we found a hermit crab but decided to head back because of the rip current.  On the way back I got stung by a part of a floating jellyfish.  It only itched for around 5 minutes but never hurt.  When we were finished dropping off  our uncle and grandpa, we got Burger King for everyone (which was delicious!).

My favorite part was catching minnows because I got to feed them to Drew.  The picture is of me in my sun shirt catching minnows.  The picture makes the day look really dark but it was actually sunny most of the time.