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Typist: Bethany Having shared my entire life with dogs, much of that time exercising and adventuring outdoors, camping and backpacking, as well as road tripping all over North America, I consider myself quite knowledgeable about canine companions. I am comparatively very new to cats. My mom is allergic to felines so I wasn't lucky enough to share my life with a kitty until I adopted Emily. I didn't even plan on cats being a part of this blog since it is based on pet travel and adventures. Not all cats are cut out for travel. Emily, for example, would have hated it. She never ventured farther than a sunny spot on the front porch. However, it turns out Amelia is an adventure cat. She leaps into her stroller for epic neighborhood excursions, begs for comfortable rides in her front pack and walks nicely on her leash. I have even taken her on a few long car rides. Last weekend I took the giant leap of bringing her along on a four night road trip to Oregon. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing even though I had been sort of planning to take her on some sort of trip since last summer. My policy with Amelia is usually to let her decide whether or not she wants to come along. When getting ready for a Seattle adventure, I set up her stroller or get out her front pack and let her jump in. So when I was trying out the travel set up and Amelia first used the litter box then curled up for a nap, I knew she had made her choice.
Considering all that could have gone wrong with my first attempt at traveling with a cat in tow I think the trip went really, really well. Once I got good at controlling the cat litter mess, I realized I could probably have Amelia along more often and on longer trips. The pets seemed very at peace when all traveling together and I felt the same way. This trip was one of the most relaxed and restful vacations I have had in a long time because a piece of my heart wasn't left at home. Best of all, Amelia had a wonderful time. Just like when touring the Southwest with Leo last year, it seemed Amelia honestly appreciated her great fortune in getting to experience seeing parts of the world even many wishful humans will never see. Having a travel partner, be they human, canine, psittacine or feline, that genuinely recognizes the wonder of wandering, is all we ever need from each other. Any cat travel suggestions would be greatly appreciated by us traveling cat newbies. Please leave a comment! Share this post: Typist: Bethany Winter? What winter? Due to a weather pattern called El Niño, we aren't having much of a winter here in Cascadia. Temperatures are warm and it has been dry. The mountains are bare. Disappointed winter sports enthusiasts are grumbling about the lack of snow and a possible drought is on everyone's mind. Tired of constantly tying my coat around my waist during recent walks, I have just stopped taking my coat along. The good news is that when it is warm enough, cockatoo Leo can come for walks and when it is dry, cat Amelia gets to adventure outside on her leash. We also are privy to some spectacular winter sunsets when when El Niño brings us higher than normal temperatures and no precipitation. All of these stunning Seattle sunsets happened in the last week. As long as we get a few more flea and tick killing freezes and enough snow in the mountains to keep us out of serious drought danger, sunsets like in these photographs will help me make it through the rest of this El Niño winter. Of course, a superbly handsome corgi model for sunset photos helps take away any winter blues too. What's your favorite thing about winter with your pets? Share this post: A Cat, A Cockatoo and Three Dogs Dream Beautiful For Spacious Skies {52 Snapshots of Life Week 4}1/27/2015 Typist: Bethany With superbly photogenic pets and stunning scenery surrounding me, I don't usually feel tested by photo challenges. Yet when I pondered how to photograph what my pets might dream, my photographic creativity was definitely put to the test. I spent a lot of time considering what a dream of a dachshund, corgi, collie, cockatoo or cat might look like. Are the pets dreams like humans and usually in black and white and in the first person? Do the dogs, parrots and cats occasionally dream in color or in a perspective of watching themselves play out the sleeping vision? Can a pets dream be a way of working out psychological issues like humans? I watched the pets sleep and smiled with curiosity. As a way of learning what the dream of a Cascadian Nomads pet might look like, I began to photograph the world from their perspective. This was an eye opening experience (which I will likely share in another post) but these photographs just weren't dreamy enough. So instead of visions from my pets dreams I decided to share insight into what I see when I close my eyes and think of Amelia, Leo, Wilhelm, Huxley and Brychwyn. I dream of my pets enjoying fantastic fun and amazing adventures. What do pets dream? What's your dream of pets? Share this post: |
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