What a whirlwind day! I had a blast at the NY Farm Show today, on the NYS Fairgrounds.
First, I want to say, I left the house this morning at 09:30 with good intentions. I made it to the fairgrounds without getting lost. I intended to be back by 16:00. We’ll get into that later. I also intended to take pictures. Sorry, but I was too consumed with all the coolness around me to actually get out my phone.
While I get that anything ag or environmentally concerned is a hot topic, with lots of opinions of what is, what should be done, what works, etc, this was a fun morning for me. And anyone who is into monster trucks or off-roading should go to one of these shows. Tractors as bid as a freaking house with tires taller than me. I even saw an electric wheelchair fitted out with tri-treads and rubber belts that could have probably climbed a hill. Treads! Almost like on a tank. How freakin’ cool is that? This chair, for one of the vendors, could probably have been used as a roto-tiller on a small front of house garden bed.
The engineering on some of these bad boy harvesters is freakin’ amazing to me. I’ve seen them before. Even been in garages built for these suckers, to keep them nice. I’d piss my pants to do it, but it must be like driving an ATV, a hummer, and a tank all at the same time.
I got some information on options I can take in my postage stamp yard, for my soil problem. Both my soil problems. Really cool thing, beneficial nematodes. Which I’ve been using for a couple of years now and I don’t have half the bug or grub problems I used to. I’m going after soil conditioning this year. It’s been a lengthy process, getting rid of the bog at the bottom of my cliff in the backyard, and dealing with the poisonous insects, algae, moss, dead soil, and poison ivy and oak. But I’m making headway with it and some of the mulching/composting bins I’ve got, it comes out nearly black, heavy with nutrients. All those leaves that hit my yard every year are being turned into food, instead of leaching the soil. I even bought a leaf muncher a couple of years ago to help and boy, thinking about how much fun (and how stress relieving,) the little one is to play with, after seeing all those big toys today… Ah well.
I picked up some good research for my Novo series, too. Always a plus. Juliana Hawthorne is going to have some interesting problems for her brand new vet practice that I got to see today, up close and personal.
So I made it through the fairgrounds and parking lot with only getting turned around once. Once. Can you believe it?
Soon, though… Soon, my road trip problem was going to get me. I just didn’t know it yet. One of my babes has recently been diagnosed with diabetes. I’m trying to find food that she will eat, if she doesn’t like the diabetic stuff. I’ve been able to get her sugar down, a little, with diet change. She’s going to probably need insulin shots. The first grain free food… Well. I will share her reaction to it another time. I’ve found 2 others that she will eat. This is good but I wanted to do more research.
So, I’m in a bigger city than where I live. More pet stores. And I know where most of them are. This is cool. I went shopping. I must also point out I decided to go shopping because I like lime Koolaid, but none of the stores around me sell it anymore. Very annoying. So I’m trying to find a different grain free cat food that isn’t on the shelves at my local pet feed place, but they might be able to order in for me. I see salmon. Crab. Chicken. Beef. Turkey. Even venison or duck. And it hits me. Cats are carnivores. Predators. Sure, we see them as sweet innocent cuddlers or aloof know-it-alls. I will come back to this point. My thought today, and, completely untalked about beforehand, my sister’s later on, was- there is no mouse flavored cat food. All I can think of is that one cat food commercial where the indoor cat is dreaming of taking down a cow. Mice are cats’ natural food source. Rodentia. Do you know, I went to three different stores today, and I only saw 1 that had rabbit?
Now, I don’t know about you, but I have seen a cat try to take down a turkey before. My ex-neighbor had a cat that thought it was a tank, apparently, and had the balls to go after everything. Dogs ran from this cat. Dobermans. Mel would go after anything. And yes, a turkey who had hopped the fence from the cemetery and had gotten stuck in my yard. Guess what? The turkey won.
I don’t know why we don’t see rabbit meat in grocery stores. Yes, I adore rabbits and have always wanted one (or more) for a pet, and no, I couldn’t eat it afterwards. I know this is hypocritical of me, but there it is. I don’t believe in abusing animals. Nor killing something for it’s fur. Ever. If an animal is to be butchered, it’s life should have meaning and the whole animal should be used. I also don’t want to hear about disease, because, let’s face it people, we eat pork and anyone who’s ever done the slightest bit of research on it knows the problems. Rabbit that are handled properly are good nutrition. Very lean in fat. High in iron. So why the heck isn’t CAT FOOD made out, even in part, of RABBIT? I found one today. Only one. 3 entire stores. One kind. Rabbits are livestock. I know from 4H and I know from the judging contests I’ve seen at country fairs. Rabbits are also natural food for our feline predators. I will only state that I know this first hand from an outdoor cat we used to have.
Enough of that particular soap box. Mostly because I really don’t want the memories that I do have about that to continue coming back.
So, in these stores, I’m also looking for cat toys. As I have stated in other posts, I have an 18.5 pound Maine Coon. He’s a big boy. Very muscular. I have another that is 17 pounds. Most cat toys, electric or otherwise, are made for cats that are about 10 pounds. Most electric cat toys are $15-50. They break within a week of being in my house. So I don’t invest in them very often.
I have found three before that both I and my cats were happy with. Now, I have found a fourth. This is a cool toy that I can leave on for my cats that I don’t have to worry about them getting hurt on, and they can play with it without supervision. The first one I found like that is PetSafe’s Automatic Cheese Cat Toy. It turns on, and left on, it will start itself automatically every eight hours. Nice for those cats who need unprovoked movement. There are no parts that their claws can get stuck on.
This one that I found today, instant hit. Amazing Jackson’s Butterfly in a Ball. It can be left on. And, it’s in a hard plastic ball, so no matter how much my big boys hit it, they can’t get hurt and this toy can’t break.
And I don’t know about you, but the words “live fly” in my house are the equivalent of “human death trap.” Cats are, for the most part, unbeknownst to many, pack animals. Yes, just like dogs. I had the unfortunate experience one day to be asleep on my bed. I heard one thump on the stairs. This was my only warning and what woke me. There was a weight on the end of the mattress as I began to sit up. One wriggling furry body cleared me, chasing the fly. The next one did not. Nor did the next. I have gotten in the habit, since, of laying completely still for a moment when there is a noise in the middle of the night to prevent such unintended bruising and bloodshed. Like I said. Predators and pack animals. I’m good with this knowledge. They are being who they are and I can’t punish them for being what they are. Completely cool with me. Needing several sets of butterfly closures was the price for receiving more directly than normal this knowledge than I already had. But in the summer? I have no worries whatsoever of bees, which I am allergic to, wasps, flies, or any other harmful bug being inside my house. I see this as a benefit.
This toy is a butterfly fluttering against the inside of the plastic. (Yes, I fully realize I am teaching my cats to be better hunters.) But it is also a toy that multiple cats can play with, including my mostly blind one. They can play with it while I am at work. And, while my hopes are in the clouds and completely unrealistic, perhaps this will mean that they will be more occupied than bored, between this butterfly in a ball and kitty tv’s in the mouse room, and not so inclined to run me over when I come in the door.
It was on this dreaming that I feel involved me in getting lost during my search for lime Koolaid. Not a little lost. 20 miles out of my way where I had to call for help kind of lost. Sighs. Yes. Another road trip. Another side ways twist. As I said, I left the house with good intentions of coming back home by 1600. I was only 2.5 hours late…