Wilma, new foster kitten

Wilma joins us from a busy foster home in Fort St. John where there were three dogs and another cat.  In our comparatively quiet home, her and Millie are now mostly friends.  Mostly.

When not duking it out in the Kitty Battledome, they`re parkouring off the furniture and wrestling on top of our sleeping bodies.

They`re both total cuties and we`re still on the fence as to whether we`ll keep Millie or not.  Luckily we`ve been able to postpone that decision as no one has shown any interest in adopting her.

At the prompting of a well-connected woman, who is quickly becoming a favourite friend in Chetwynd, I attended a volunteer orientation at one of the primary schools at lunch.

Car free and usually care free, I debated the  merits of walking or cycling in a developing northern snow storm.

Both would get me out of the house. Pro.  I could get there faster cycling and read a novel longer.  Pro.  I was going to a school and they would have a bike rack.  HUGE Pro.  A book club mate and the inviter to the event had recently dislocated her shoulder from a cycling fall - on dry pavement - hmmm, possible con.

I cycled there.  It was chilly.  I felt hardcore.  The wind blew snow into my exposed face both ways.  Con, con, con.

There was delicious carrot soup waiting when I arrived at the school and two fun kitties when I returned home. Pro.  

Foster kitty photos

The Lions are progressing!  Leda, pictured on the left, comes out to play laser and take treats.  (S)he continues to be vocal day and night and was even exploring upstairs this morning!  Kitty Hendrix, on the right, responds to catnip, does mild exploring downstairs and otherwise continues to be a skilled hider and champion scaredy cat.  

Animal fostering, maiden voyage

Unable to commit to long-term pet ownership, I signed Dan and I up for the next best thing: fostering.  Between being "dumped" or surrendered or crowded shelters, fostering is meant to be a transition for the animals into their eventual "forever home."

The lag between expressing interest to Chetwynd's local rescue group, On Our Way Home Animal Rescue, and receiving two kitten was merely nine days!  

Chetwynd-based and serving British Columbia's Peace region, they're committed to rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing abandoned and abused animals to the homes they deserve.  Anti-euthanization, this dedicated group has several cats and dogs in foster care available for adoption.  

Our own two black with white long-haired cats (collectively named the Licorice Lions with individual names still to present themselves) will be ready to go a week after their spay and neuter surgeries on the 17 April.  

Only two nights in, they're still adapting to their indoor lifestyle (it's thought that they were outdoor feral cats previously) and are skilled hiders.  Preferred spaces so far: dresser drawers, a tiny space between the stairs and the wall and behind the sofa.  

We're taking baby steps with them.  The door to their basement lair is now open during the day time while one of us is home, their food is creeping slowly up the stairs to encourage interaction, we visit and chat to them adjacent to their hiding places nearly hourly when home and are initiating contact.  

I will post photos of these cute kitties in the basement when they pop out long enough to snap a non-blurry photo.  

To view available animals for adoption, to donate, inquire about fostering or other volunteer opportunities, visit their website or facebook group page.  

Parting photos

Leaving sucks.  Whether from Bimini, Calgary, Chetwynd or Phuket.  While I've lamented the bittersweetness of returning to where you started it still stinks saying what is likely "see you never" amidst tears covered by sunglasses (a trick I learned entirely too late) to truly great friends.  

Farewells wished with good intentions to stay in touch, I'm at stopover 1 on The Long Way Home in Davenport, Iowa where my younger sister goes to uni.  I was truly impressed with the St. Paddy's show Kelly's down the road from her flat put on.  Outdoors tents housed local bands playing covers, green beer flowed from the copious and well-placed stalls while the generations of green-clad party goers danced through it all.  

Not unlike Red Deer, Davenport is a city.  An offensive, loud, bright city filled with cars, SUVs, motorbikes and all manner of tards driving them.  I long for motorbike-filled cities with no traffic lights, golf carts driven on the left side of the road, a skiff, a chicken  or even Bimini's party bus.  

  No bullsharks for the Italian film crew, but a pod of pelicans was interested in our bait and the scraps from the cleaning table.  

Shit Pit prep

 Some Sharklab be(a)sties

 

A wee nurse caught gillnetting

Working her up

The skiffs

Chris swimming from our boat to the Twin Vee with bait

 This is not a hammerhead but still a sizeable nurse

Jean preparing hammerhead bait

 

Sunset at the Beach Club

Leaving Morning sunrise

Octoposses, painting and sunsets

Ocoposses are deployed nearly daily.  The exterior of the house is new colours.  Tower observations have taken on a new element of challenging.  SUR collection is great fun under water spouts.  Shark fishing continues with mixed results. 

 Octopus 1

 Day off on North

 Off Back Beach

 On the way to Shell Beach for sunset

 Hey, yacht with a 3 million dollar helipcopter, you're in the way!

 Jean, TJ and Mai-Britt on one of the towers

 Ravi with hairy SURs

Water spout over Bimini Bay

Back Bimini side

I live in a house that uses conch shells as door stops; a self-sufficient and conservation-minded house where our living quarters resemble a generous boat; a house whose back beach, a quick 50 meter stroll from the oft cluttered washing line adjacent to the house, serves as a liquor cabinet, ghost crab catching grounds and a launching pad to several shark-filled pens; a house with a dock where cleaning my teeth in the morning it's not unusual for a turtle to pop up for air. 

After a two year hiatus, I have returned to volunteer at the Bimini Biological Field Station aka Sharklab on Bimini, Bahamas. 

Even with the first half week filled with classes ranging from knot tying to marine radio to boat driving to shark handeling, we managed a half day snorkeling at the Sapona and a shark dive and feed off Triangle Rocks.  More than a dozen reef and black nose sharks popped over for an easy snack as fellow volunteers squeeled with delight through their snorkels. 

 North Bimini

 Morning prize for jetlag

Ahh, Bimini sunrise

Incoming Hope

"HOPE IS COMING!" screeched a tiny Thai woman.  More than 50 volunteers, day visitors and staff legged it to the safety of an elevated platform despite the optimistic bellow.  Hope, a cheeky teenage male rescued shortly after birth, is an elephant.  

One of the 36 elephants currently at the Elephant Nature Park rescued by patchyderm superhero Sangduen (Lek) Chailert, Hope has never been tortured, abused or forced to work in the logging or tourist industries.  

Other rescuees aren't so fortunate.  As 2700 kilo females plod past on dislocated hips, broken ankles and abscessed feet, it's truly heart breaking to visualize the events that led to their conditions.  "Broken" in a "crush," pummeled by sharp hooks, nails and slingshotted stones so they'd submit to human direction and later injected with methamphetamines so they'd work longer the Park is a rare sanctuary for retired and rescued elephants. 

A vacation volunteer program has participants helping for a minimum of one week either at the Park or in a remote location in SE Asia.  While our labour was not as valuable as the funds and time we gave, the real value for the Park is the onward education and enthusiasm for elephant conservation the volunteers come away with. 

 Mae Perm and Jokia

River bath time

Ele suncreme

Hope was trained to do this through positive reinforecemet 

Vet student G cleaning wounds 

The B Team with our Volunteer Coordinators.  The one with his arm around me threw four of us into the mudpit.

Post bathing

Feeding time

Premiere

I am not a blogging virgin. When the urge strikes me, I write for The King's Green Pad too.

I set this blog up in preparation for an impending trip to the Bahamas in January of 2010 when I will be immersed in sun, sand and sharks at the Bimini Biological Field Station. Check them out.

Note the happy, bathing suit clad volunteers! That will be yours truly in less than two months.