Chasing Simple Dreams

Writing for animals and an RV surprise!

December 13, 2020December 13, 2020Terri

Writing for Animals!

Writing for Animals — It’s a course!! It’s a book!! It’s — it’s — it’s what I want to do!!!

If you read my last post, you know that something I have been thinking about doing, off and on, for a while now, has been to go on the road and write about animals. Visit a lot of animal sanctuaries and rehab facilities and then write about my experiences there. In the process, the goal is to educate myself and others to the myriad of species out there — both wildlife and domestic. Visit state and national parks along the way and see how climate change is affecting them both in terms of their wildlife and plants/trees. Again, write about them and educate myself and others in the process. Who knows? Maybe it could eventually become a book someday.

So when Ashland Creek Press, whose email list I subscribe to, informed me that they were going to be offering a four-week writing course in January entitled Writing for Animals, using a book by the same name as one of its texts, I jumped at the chance! I’ve already received the book and started reading through it and am excited for the course. The course is already full, but because there was such a good response to the inaugural session, they will be holding at least one more. You can sign up for their mailing list here and learn about the course’s leaders here (Midge Raymond and John Yunker).

Reading through the text, I am reminded of some of the lessons from the courses I took through the Institute for Humane Education, or IHE as it’s known. Always be very aware of your audience and be extremely aware of the language and terminology you use. For example, what’s the difference in referring to an animal as he, she, or it? It makes a difference and can sometimes show some insight into the upbringing or experiences of the writer. for example, using the term “it” can demonstrate speciesism, intentional or not. Even my choice of image below conveys certain ideas about how I view animals and desire others to view them. I can’t wait for this course!

RV Surprise!

Image by Siggy Nowak from Pixabay (This is what a Class C RV looks like.)

My brother and sister-in-law have been traveling through Latin America and South America for a couple years now, in a truck and camper. You can read more about their adventures at It’s Not a Slow Car, It’s a Fast House. (I highly suggest you do, as Geneva is a really good writer and you can learn a lot about so many different topics from reading her posts.) Before the truck camper, they traveled throughout the US and Canada with a Vanagon named Alta. They know I tried out RV living a few years ago when I was in Utah, working for Best Friends Animal Society, when I had a 30 foot fifth wheel set up in a mobile home/trailer park. That wasn’t the right fit for me for many reasons: remote location, stationary location for the RV (and my inability to tow it on my own).

My brother sent me a link to a Cruise America video and said “this would be the perfect size for you.” It’s a Class C motor home, 19 feet in length. (If you don’t know what the different classes of motorhomes are, think of the ones that have a bunk over the cab. Not a van-type body (those are Class Bs) or as long as a bus (those are Class As). Now, I am familiar with Cruise Americas from my time working in Page, Arizona at the Wahweap RV and Campground at the Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas. And if you click on that link and are wondering, does it really look like that? Um, YES!! It really is a gorgeous area located near the Navajo Nation’s Reservation. But I’ve never driven a motorhome myself, even though I’ve been in many a travel trailer and motorhome during my life.

So, I decided I would start saving to rent one in the spring and take my animals along for the ride; see how my fur family and I handle being together in such a space as i am considering buying one when my lease is up in July. Geneva and Mike mentioned to me that they have a friend who rented one of theirs once as part of a transport for the company, and got a good deal on the price of the rental and many free miles. You can learn more about that by clicking here. So that’s what I am doing! I am flying to Boston on Christmas Day. My flight was $37!! On Jet Blue!! How insane is that?? And then I will drive it back to Florida!

I am taking Snuggles with me for a few reasons. First, Jet Blue limits you to flying with a pet and carrier that combined are only 20 pounds. My Sophie girl alone is 23 pounds, so I can’t take her, plus she might be a bit too long or tall for flying under the seat. Second, Snuggles and Sophie are both my early warning systems when there is danger (or what they perceive to be danger or just a human being, or animal) nearby. And third, I know he gets very depressed when I am not around. When I went to my nephew’s wedding in Arizona in March 2019, my friend Sarita said he moped the entire time I was gone and didn’t want to come out the bedroom. Sophie is a bit more independent and happy go lucky, so while she will miss me and I will really miss her, I know she can handle the separation better than he can.

Upon arriving back in Florida, I will be hooking up to the electric (and water if there is an outside connection) to the guest house where my brother is staying (I got permission from him and his in-laws whose guest house he is staying in) for a few days. That will be my opportunity to get Sophie and the cats and see how they all do in such a space, or to find out if the next size up might be a bit better. There are Class Cs that are 22, 23, and 24 feet as well as much longer, and Cruise America has a 23 footer. It’s my thinking a Class C might be good because the cabover bed may be a great way for the cats to have their safe sanctuary away from the dogs when needed. So you could say this is my TEST run! Maybe it will be too small. Maybe it will be too big. But maybe, it may be just right. 🙂

Cruise America and Cruise Canada do sell their units, refurbished, after they are about 3 to 4 years old. The mileage is on the higher side but on the other hand, you will know the maintenance history and they are also upgraded in ways to withstand the wear and tear of rental use. For my trip, it will cost me $39 per night and I get 2500 free miles, more than enough to make the trip from Boston to the Orlando area. (Actually down to Naples and then back up to turn in the RV.)

This will be the first time I make this drive between Mass and Florida without it being in my small Mazda2 crammed in with all The Herd and my stuff! Whatever will I do with all this space???

But aren’t you worried about Covid?

So you may be aware that I have already had Covid. While it is extremely rare, I know you can get it more than once. So I am being very careful on my end, as my friend in MA with whom I will be staying for a couple days is pregnant and in her second trimester. I will be getting a Covid test within 72 hours of my flight.

People see the news and think that everyone in Florida is partying on the beach without a care in the world and basically inviting Covid into their life. Don’t believe everything you see. Stores pretty much require masks. Restaurants require them until you are seated at your table, and restaurants practice social distancing with less than full capacity — I think they are allowed 50 percent capacity at most. Last couple of months, I have been running outside or going to the beach to walk or run, for my exercise. Wear a mask when in public around others. Honestly, I’m home a lot. And a great number of people down here take social distancing and the advice of wearing masks to heart. We are just lucky in that we have good weather all year round so we can be outside and social distance more easily than in cold climates. Rest assured, the idea of going through that experience of Covid again is not at all appealing to me. I will be careful both before, during and after my trip.

So anyway, that’s my news!! The trip begins December 28th! For safety reasons, I won’t be posting real-time photos, but will let some folks know my itinerary once I figure it out and where I am.

For now, I am off to research cat harnesses and to attempt to find a second hand winter coat for my trip. Wish me luck — the odds of finding one in southwest Florida are somewhere between slim and none!

Thanks for reading!

“Just a thought” in my mind becomes a new dream

November 27, 2020November 27, 2020Terri

Great blue heron seen recently on a jetty along Naples Beach. Just looked so majestic, standing there for the longest time

So here is something I have thought about doing over the years. If I ever get my big girl pants on and decide to travel in an RV or some other form around the US, I would like to see a bunch of national parks. BUT what I ALSO want to do is visit a ton of animal sanctuaries, especially wildlife sanctuaries/rehab facilities. I really enjoyed the time i spent with the Peace River Wildlife Center, and one of the things that i have really liked about living in Florida is the wildlife. It is freaking amazing!!

One of my favorite things to do here at the beach is to watch the pelicans dive bomb for their food from the sky, or fly so low and close to the water that I’m amazed that they don’t get their wings wet while doing it. If you have ever seen a pelican dive, or even if you haven’t, then you will want to check out this video on YouTube: Pelicans Dive Bombing Once they enter the water, they open up their throat pouch, which can hold as much as three GALLONS of water, and catch fish, which they then turn around in their pouch, if need be, to swallow the fish whole, face first.

I watch the sandpipers run up and down the sand, in and out of the path of the waves. I watch the willets near the shoreline. If I’m lucky, I get to see a great egret or snowy egret stalk some prey (ahem, fish). And on the really awesome days, i get to see dolphins. Of all the days I have spent mornings or sunsets at the beach, I have only been lucky to see some jumping out of the water. (I used to think they were playing but have since found out that they do that to be able to see the fish better, or to cover more “ground” than just by swimming.)

The pelicans closest to me (the camera) are juveniles, which you can tell by their coloring on their heads and necks (gray). Toward the middle of the photo and at the back, you will see two with white necks. Those are adults. They don’t get their adult coloring until they reach the age of three.

Anyway, I digress. Anyone who has worked in animal welfare knows it doesn’t pay well. It is a true “labor of love.” One of the last things those folks do have is time to market themselves or publicize their work. Many depend on volunteer labor to get everything done. What I would like to do is travel to these sanctuaries, volunteer if possible, talk to the folks who work there or run them, and then write about them or get their good deeds known to others. Still brainstorming the best ways to do that. TRANSLATION: Anyone have any good ideas about that? (Instagram, YouTube, podcast?) Please comment below!

Hand in hand with this idea is another one that occurred to me while on a recent run. There don’t seem to be a searchable database of these types of organizations/wildlife sanctuaries. I can find some for animal shelters but not wildlife rehabilitation centers or sanctuaries.

The librarian in me will never die — I would love to create something like that for others like me who care about the animals of the world and how we can protect them, donate to help them, or volunteer our labor as well. While I do think I am adept at learning new things, a software engineer or database creator I am not. However I am sure there is someone out there who could help or at least point me in the right direction to get this idea cracking. So if you are reading this blog and know of someone who can assist, even in some small way, with info, ideas etc., PLEASE share this post with them! I know I can create a web page that organizes that info in possibly a table format, etc., but there has to be a better way!

Information I’d like to include about the sanctuaries/rehab facilities would be:

Name of sanctuary
Location
Populations/Species of animals cared for
Information on donating to the sanctuary (via links, posssibly)
Information on volunteering at the sanctuary (via links, possibly)
Information on the mission or vision statement of that sanctuary
Thoughts on the sanctuaries that I do visit as well as links to my writeup/podcast/video, etc., on that sanctuary

Any other ideas any of you might have out there? I know I am not the only person in the world who loves and appreciates wildlife and wants to do whatever they can to help them in these times of climate change and shrinking habitats. I would like to use my talents and skills to do my part. And, I feel like this suits my me more than pursuing a marine biology degree because science and math are truly not my strong suits. I felt like for those few months of school just recently, I was pounding my head against a wall, trying to do something which I am just not naturally suited for. Writing, educating, organizing and speaking are where I excel much more.

Photo of recent sunset along Naples Beach, just because.

What do you think? A worthwhile idea, or am I just crazy??

Clearly, it would take time to develop but over time, little things add up. My thinking is that this adventure of traveling to the sanctuaries could start late 2021.

RIP, HoneyBun (2004?-2020) and Callie (2005-2020)

November 21, 2020November 21, 2020Terri

Baby Girl Callie. Just look at those eyes and that face.

Baby Girl HoneyBun during one of her good days at the end.

This isn’t the post I imagined I would be writing last week when I said I wanted to start writing more often but it is one that needs to be written.

If you read my last post before this, you’ll know that I lost Callie this summer, the end of July. Well, last weekend, I lost my HoneyBun also. Two of the sweetest baby girls a fur mom could ever ask for. Each definitely each had their own personalities. As I always say to potential adopters, all animals are unique and have their own personality and quirks. Just like us.

Both of my girls had been with me through multiple cross-countries moves. From Boston to Utah, to Arizona, to Albuquerque in New Mexico, to Naples, to Boston, and then back to Florida via Cape Coral and then Naples once again. Seriously experienced in the moving game.

Callie loved water and by water, i mean ICE WATER. She loved that ice, boy. Every time you walked into the kitchen, there she was, with her little cry of “Rah rah. Rah rah” She would keep it up until you put some ice cubes in her mug of water. (Princesses drink out of mugs, not bowls, don’t you know??) She would start purring as soon as she put her head over the mug. She sometimes had the cutest little trill of a purr. A coworker of mine out in ABQ called her Velcro because when she would pick her up in the treatment area, Callie would hold onto her for dear life, like velcro. Hard to believe that when my ex-hb and I first adopted her, she didn’t like being picked up and held. She soon learned to love it.

When I first met HoneyBun in the shelter, she didn’t like you reaching over her head, so I learned to do what i called “drive-by petting.” You put your hand out to the side of your pet and start petting them on their side or their back and then slowly work your way up to their head. Get it? Drive by. 🙂 Worked like a charm for her and many others.When I first met HoneyBun in the shelter, she didn’t like you reaching over her head, so I learned to do what i called “drive-by petting.” You put your hand out to the side of your pet and start petting them on their side or their back and then slowly work your way up to their head. Get it? Drive by. 🙂 Worked like a charm for her and many others.

It was especially hard for me to lose Callie. She was the one tie I had in my (single) life that was also there when I was married. We adopted Callie in 2006 from the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, MA, when she was only one year old. A young girl who had fostered her wrote a letter about her to potential adopters and after reading it, I knew Callie was the right baby girl for us. So that’s how I knew Callie was 15 this year when she passed. She was such a beautiful little girl. So dainty. So talkative when she wanted her ice water. ❤

You’ll note two pics have both Snuggles and HoneyBun. On the round papasan chair, I can just imagine HoneyBun saying, “What the….dude, I was here first!” Note that both of my girls liked to drink out of their own individual glass/mug, given a choice.

With HoneyBun, I’ve never know her true age. I adopted her from the Animal Rescue League of Boston, whose vet had determined she was about 5. I took her to my own vet who said, “mmmm I think she might be older, like 8 or 9.” Older was fine with me. I’ve had a fond spot in my heart for seniors (the underdogs in the pet adoption world) for a long time. I’ve always been Team Animal Underdog. So I’ve always hoped that she was on that younger end of the age range, but it started to be more clear this year that she was more likely on the later end. She developed some cloudiness in her right eye, as you may see from one of the pictures of her. I had my vet here in Naples check her out. It wasn’t an ulcer, and it didn’t seem to be hurting her or like it was affecting her vision. We used some ointment for her eye, which she very sweetly tolerated (followed by a treat, of course). That was back in August.

Both of my baby girls lost weight at the end. We think Callie essentially had renal failure which is very common in cats as they get older, and possibly cancer as well. With HoneyBun, it was determined from blood tests and urinalysis, that she had liver failure and quite possibly cancer. Earlier in the week that she died, she had very high white blood cell counts, but no fever, very high liver numbers and gall bladder numbers. And she was dehydrated. So she got fluids and a long-acting antibiotic by injection and some other stuff as well as a stay overnight with my vet. Tuesday, she came home and she seemed to be doing much better. We scheduled an ultrasound for her the following day with a vet that would come from out of town, hoping to figure out if she had a mass on her liver or just more of an idea of what was going on. That was also when Tropical Storm/Eta was heading toward and made landfall on the Gulf Coast, right around the same time that out of town vet was trying to get to Naples, so her appointment was postponed to the following week.

Unlike with Callie who crashed at the end and crashed hard, HoneyBun seemed to bounce back for a few days. Even without an appetite stimulant, she was excited to eat food and actively engage with me. That Saturday, I volunteered at DAS (Domestic Animal Services, i.e. city/county pound) and when I came home, i had some work to do. HoneyBun was sleeping which didn’t seem out of the norm. After I finished my work, I looked and saw her bowl still had a lot of food left in it. And I noticed that she seemed lethargic and didn’t even want to drink too much water. She would sit by the water fountain or bowl but not actually drink from it. And then I saw her looking at the wall with a kind of blank look on her face. None of that was good.

Whereas HoneyBun had been only slightly anemic on Monday, her blood cell count on Saturday was down to 12 percent. The emergency animal hospital vet agreed with me that to let her go would be the kindest thing I could do for her. So I said goodbye. She and Callie’s ashes are right next to each other in my bedroom. I have all of my animals privately cremated these days so they can always travel with me and be with me, no matter where I may find myself. (For those of you not familiar with the term, “private cremation,” there are two types of animal cremations. Private means you get their ashes back. Group cremations means you don’t get the ashes back.”

So the Herd is getting smaller here on earth, but the Herd is growing up over the Rainbow Bridge. I hope that when my time comes to leave this earth, all my babies will be there to greet me and I will have to watch carefully to not trip over all of them if they all come running to see me. Until then, I have their pictures and their memories in my heart and in my mind.

If I could speak for all the animals that have been personally in my life and with whom I have interacted at the end of their life, I would like to make a plea on their behalf. Yes, I know it’s hard for us humans to say good bye to them in the end. Sometimes humans keep them alive longer than they should, when they are in pain or uncomfortable. And sometimes humans decide they can’t handle being with their furball when they close their eyes for the last time. But please, PLEASE find it in your heart to be with them at the end. They have loved you their entire lives, and it is one of the greatest gifts that we can give to them to be there for them in return. It’s an act of love. Being comforted by someone at the animal hospital just isn’t the same.

So, if you have a furry one in your life, hold them tight after you read this post and tell them you love them and let them lick your face or your hand. Thank you, from me and from them.

And I will close this post with a picture of my teeny-tiny Callie drinking out of a giant bowl of water containing LOTS of ice cubes.

Because water just tastes better when it’s cold. 🙂

Oh, where to start?

November 13, 2020Terri

Yep, it’s been a while. So long that I am having to orient myself to all the WordPress changes since I last blogged. Good Lord.

The world certainly has changed since the last time I wrote on this blog. Covid-19. Enough said.

I love being at the beach after sunset on what had been a stormy day. No filter added. No special camera. Just an amazing sky with pilings in the foreground.

I have stopped and started a few drafts over the past several months. The longer you go without posting, the easier it gets to NOT post. You can talk yourself into thinking no one cares anymore or follows your blog anymore. Kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’ve moved back to Naples, Florida. My oldest cat, Callie, passed away in July. In August, I started school through FSW (Florida Southwestern State College), taking some prerequisite classes for a marine science (or eventual marine policy, etc.) type of degree. I was taking bio and chem (bleck, ugh) with labs. I say bleck because it was all about electrons and atoms at that stage. Things that just bore me to tears, quite honestly.

My HoneyBun, who we think is more likely 16 than 13 as had been previously thought. She’s lost a lot of weight recently so i feel like any time i have with her is precious.

So yeah, you may have noticed I used the past tense in that previous paragraph. If you did, thanks for reading so closely. I stopped taking the classes. Faced the reality that I would be graduating with another bachelor’s or master’s degree at the age of 54 or 55 and then competing with 24 year olds for work at entry level salaries. So I stopped. Yes, another start and another stop. My own inner voice echoes back to me something my mom said to me last year when I was back in Boston and decided to come back to Florida and that is “Do you have any idea what you are doing or what you want?” No. I guess not.

I keep living my life thinking about the future, and I realize that that prevents me from living in the present. I’m always trying to figure out why I was put on this earth. How I can leave it in a better place than how it was when I came into it. And while I’m doing that, I am missing out on the present.

Up close and personal shot of a great egret hanging out at a boat launch a few weeks ago.

When I sat down to write this post today, I discovered a comment someone had left on m blog back in June. IN JUNE! When I went to their site today to check them out, I saw this post and it sums up some thoughts I have had so many times and which for some reason are so hard for me to articulate clearly. It is Karma: The Purpose of Life.

Some days, I have felt like my purpose on this earth was to save a bunch of sea urchins and starfish that had washed up on shore. Or to throw back that fish that had washed up (or possibly been dropped by a bird) on the shore, still breathing. I have a neighbor right now who had surgery on his ankle and is pretty much housebound, so I’ve been helping him out with his dog and such. Maybe that’s my purpose for right now.

I don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, I don’t think I ever will. I change my mind so much as to what i think I am supposed to be doing on this earth and have pivoted so many times in the past five years that I no longer get upset when someone kids me that I will probably change my mind next week or even in the next few days. Because it’s true. I might.

I won’t get upset when I tell others I’m thinking about moving when my lease is up in July. (My sis expressed some frustration when I mentioned looking into Pensacola as an option. She asked why i moved back to Naples when i did. Well, when my lease was up, lockdowns were upon us and I couldn’t really drive around and check out other potential places. I’m back in the same apt building I was in before. At least here, I knew what to expect and I’m only 10 mins from the beach, if that. When i explained that, she was like, “I see your point.”) My brother is in Naples now (left NYC as so many have done over the past few months) but there is no guarantee that he and his wife may stay here long term since for her, there isn’t a ton of job prospects.)

So, yes, as with so many people in life, right now, the future is up in the air. Come July, will i move? Probably. Will i move into an RV and travel around and see my family and friends I’ve made over the years, for extended periods of time? Possibly. Will I move into a tiny apartment somewhere and continue walking or running the beach often? (I have a half-started post about that in the works — the beach part, anyway.) And why have i been missing my friends and the beauty of the southwest so often lately?? Should I take a trip back out there? Perhaps. (Already had Covid and I’m not averse to wearing a mask on a plane if need be. )

It has occurred to me I should set a schedule of when posts go up on this blog, and maybe incorporate this space more into my why, my purpose in life. Take it more seriously. So, I will try. For the two of you out there maybe even still reading this blog or intermittently checking it for updates, I at least owe you that.

All About Animals: Birds Edition

February 23, 2020Terri

I mentioned in a recent post that one of my happy places is the Peace River Wildlife Center where I volunteer on the weekend as a tour guide. I love that I get to be around beautiful animals but cannot be tempted to bring them home with me because well, it’s illegal to have wildlife in your home as a pet. And if you’ve taken a look at The Herd page, well, you know I really don’t have room for more!! Nor can I afford to take care of any more!

PRWC is a small wildlife rehab center and sanctuary that does amazing work for the budget that it has. It is run on private donations and most of the folks that greet visitors are volunteers such as myself but there are some paid staff such as the wildlife rehabilitator and techs and an office manager/volunteer coordinator/she of many hats! I find that as I am learning more about the animals and the organization, my time at PRWC is becoming more and more important to me each week. I truly look forward to the hours I spend there, and have now joined their outreach team. (The photos below that were taken with humans around were from an outreach event about a week ago.)

If you’d like to help PRWC’s cause (or any one of a number non-profits like them), then when you shop on Amazon, go instead to Amazon Smile and pick the charitable organization of your choice. At no extra cost to you, that charity will get a small percentage of the cost of your items donated to them. It may only be pennies at a time but over time, believe me, it can add up.

Down here in Florida, I am fortunate to see a lot of wildlife so I am sharing some in this post that I have seen since I’ve moved here along with some photos of ambassador animals from PRWC. The ambassadors go to outreach events to let people know about the center and serve as great sources of education and inspiration for anyone who is able to see them up close.

By the way, these brown pelicans shown below were waiting for a fisherman who was cleaning off some fish, to throw them scraps. PSA: fisherman should not throw them parts of fish. If there are any bones sticking out, it can really do a number on ripping up their throat when they eat it. It’s best for a pelican to eat a fish whole.

Two adult brown pelicans as seen in Naples last year. You know they are adults because their necks are white. They don’t get their adult colors until they turn three. The one appearing closest to me as the photographer appears to have a chestnut colored neck. That means he or she was in mating/nesting mode. They don’t get this dark chestnut color until they turn at least three. After nesting season is over, that color will molt off and they will return to their full white necks. We have many of these pelicans at PRWC!

Black crowned night heron – this one was seen at the Seaside Bird Sanctuary, Indian Shores, Florida. This one was not a resident of the sanctuary but seemed unfazed by all the humans walking right by him/her.

Okay, it’s not a bird but a gopher tortoise. We have one named Legoless (a few amputations on her foot due to being attacked by a dog) at our sanctuary.

Saw these flamingos at Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, Florida. I’ve been told that, similar to the roseate spoonbill, they have pink feathers due to their diet. My sanctuary does have a roseatte spoonbill named Spork. He was almost dead from starvation when found, as he couldn’t fly. He has had a wing amputation and is one of my favorites at PRWC.

Cruiser is an American Kestrel. Smallest type of falcon in North America. One of the types of birds where the male is more brightly colored than the female (his wings have some blue to them.) Named Cruiser because he was hit by a car and found by a biker who picked him up, put him in his saddlebags and brought him to PRWC. That was about two years ago. He is estimated to be about three years old.

Here is a close up of Cruiser’s beautiful face!

Luna is a very rare Eastern Screech Owl if not the only one that is totally white! Eastern screech owls are the smallest owl to be found in Florida. Usually they blend into the background of a tree where they may be hanging out. Luna does not have the pigment needed to help him protect himself in the wild. Eastern screech owls usually live about three years in the wild. Luna turns 7 on April Fools Day! (No joke!)

Isn’t Orion majestic?? He is a three year old barred owl that imprinted on humans at a very young age. The story about him is that as a baby, he tried to fly. Didn’t go so well and he found himself on the ground. A lady found him and called the Fish and Wildlife folks who put him back in the tree. But she had become enamored with him and would go out and talk to him and sometimes feed him. So he never learned to hunt for food on his own. So now he, along with Luna and Cruiser are just a few of the ambassador animals found at PRWC.

Here is another photo of Orion. Owls have many more vertebrae in their neck than humans, which is what allows them to turn 270 degrees!! I believe at the time I took this photo, he might have been giving a dog the stink-eye!

So that’s it for this post. I plan on adding more information to the Animal Rights and Welfare Groups page and have some thoughts about adding an Educational Resources/Tools page to this blog. (You really can take the girl out of the library but not the library out of the girl.) Let me know what you think about that, and I hope that you enjoy these photos and the little bits of information I was able to share!

So. Much. Sleeping.

February 12, 2020Terri

Oh, I wish I was talking about me!! Today is Wednesday. Hump Day. So, I thought you might like an overdose of cuteness to get you through the day. You can thank The Herd, aka the laziest supervisors ever, for their willingness to work so hard at sleeping and relaxing. It’s a hard job but someone has to do it, right?

I’ve been wanting to write for the past couple days and this is a faster one to get up here for you to remind you that no, I’m not dead. 🙂 My hardest decision about this post is which picture to make as The Designated Picture!

So without further adieu, here are some photos of The Herd, doing what they do best, other than pooping and eating. (And yes, Steel, the German Shepherd, who is an honorary member of the Herd until May 2020, when his dad (my roommate) and I will go our separate ways, has even joined in on the fun.) Many were taken from my office. While I slave away to make enough money to put food in their bowls on the floor (dogs) or on the dresser (cats, in order to keep it away from the dogs), they all work soooo hard. #notesarcasm

But yes….they really are my reason for existing and for living.

What is your reason for living and for working so hard? Drop me a comment below and share, if you can, pictures of your babies!!

Limiting Beliefs; How Nature Heals

February 1, 2020February 1, 2020Terri

First, I just wanted to say a big thank you to those of you who commented on my last post, whether it be through here or on my personal Facebook page. I felt a lot of love, knowing some of you were still out there, reading whatever I have to say. So, thank you. Because of you, and how I felt that day after writing, I will continue to write.

I have a friend who is also my personal finance accountability partner, Liz. When we are thinking of making some financial choices, we bounce them off of each other. Our financial situations are very different – she lives in D.C. and makes a very good salary and JUST PAID OFF MORE THAN 100K IN STUDENT LOAN DEBT! But as you can imagine, her living expenses are much higher due to the geographical area. I make peanuts but we realize we have made different decisions about how our lives are going right now. I will say it’s great that she also loves what she does.

**There are a few of these docks in this cove area but this one appears to be sinking. Not sure why they are there, honestly. You never see anyone on them.** **But note the stillness of the water.**

Okay. I’ll get to the point. She calculated how much extra I needed to earn these next few months to be able to pay off what I estimate will be owed on my taxes. At first, I said I didn’t think I could do it. Surprisingly, this month, I think I did it. Yay! I had let my own thoughts limit me in the past in what I could achieve. However, I am FREAKING exhausted. So I have given myself today to not do any work at all. Just read, blog, and volunteer at the Peace River Wildlife Center, which has become my happy place on the weekends when I am not traveling to see my boyfriend.

I took a walk through an eco-preserve near me the other day. It’s a place where I normally jog, oh so slowly. Thursday is usually reserved for a spin class at 9 a.m. but my body and mind was just exhausted so I decided to just walk it and I was so happy to pull into the parking area and see that I was all alone, save for the park employee cleaning the bathrooms. I hope you enjoy the pictures scattered throughout this post. These images, seared into my memory, helped me get through the past two days of work. Apologies for not being a better photographer.

Wherever I end up after this lease is up in May, I will find another beautiful place that heals me. I was inspired to take this walk after seeing this YouTube video from Jane Berkel. Her channel is Simple Living Mind Body Home. I find Jane’s voice to be so calming. (Shout out to Double Digit Single Woman or DDSW for short, for turning me onto this lady’s channel. Btw, DDSW has also paid off over $150K in student loans!)

While I was walking, thoughts of work and finances occasionally made their way into my head but I pushed them out of the way. I thought to myself how nature, these trees, these leaves and the birds I could hear in the distance didn’t care about any of that. They existed anyway. Like that moment many years ago when I realized I could choose to be unhappy and feel a lot of pain every day, or I could choose to forgive myself for whatever wrong decisions or mistakes I had made, I realized I had a choice to make that day and every day.

The choice is mine. I can choose to be stressed or I can choose to be in the moment. I chose to just absorb all the beauty around me.

Note the drop of water hanging from the left-most leaf on this plant.

**My attempt to take a close-up of the rainwater and dew that had collected on top of the leaves.**

**Note the upturned roots of the red mangrove tree in the water. Mangroves are so important to the southwestern Florida ecosystem. So many animals make their homes in this small area.**

Many of the trees have these “knots” or burls on them. They don’t harm the tree. The tree will die from natural causes. They are thought to have formed from either an injury, or a mold or insect infestation. But again, they do not harm the tree. (Sorry for the awful quality of this photo!)

Here you can see how well-developed the mangrove tree’s root system is, as well as see many more of the burls mentioned above. While the bark of this tree may not look red, it is very close to the shoreline, so I believe it is a red mangrove tree. So named because its inner bark is red in color.

Sigh…I hope this thing still works

January 26, 2020Terri

Once again, many moons or months have passed since my last post. I’ve started quite a few since then, only to never finish them. I start writing and then I think, who even cares to read my drivel anymore? And is there anyone even out there still reading anything I write? It’s not like I’ve been consistent lately. (Understatement of the year.)

Since I’ve been doing transcription full-time, it is hard for me to rationalize writing on here and then typing about 70 pages a day. I know I should start the writing before the transcribing, because sometimes my fingers literally hurt at the end of the day. So maybe write posts on the days that I am mainly just audio proofing and therefore not typing so much? Anyway, it’s hard to believe I’ve been self-employed now for over a year. 15 months as of February to be exact.

Well, The Herd has grown by one since my last writing. Her name is Babs and she is a gorgeous calico cat whose previous fur mom died. Her human sister and I had a mutual friend who posted her picture and story on Facebook and one thing led to another. And well, Babs traveled across the country from LA to Jacksonville, Florida, where I picked her up and drove her back down to the Ft. Myers area. You know how I love my senior furballs.

How could I resist bringing this cutie into my home??

As I mentioned in my last post, I am looking to move in May sometime as our lease is up at the end of that month. Thinking very seriously about the St. Pete/Clearwater area and its environs. Cheaper to live, more liberal and more people around my age. Down here there are a lot of 20-somethings and then there are a bunch of much older folks, like those who have been able to retire and live off of their savings or pensions or what have you. Really hard to make friends when you work at home and aren’t into the bar scene. I do volunteer at a wildlife center on the weekends when I am in town and I love it. But it’s not really a great way to make lasting friends since the volunteers change a lot on the weekends.

I have been dating someone now for the past few months. Yay! He’s about 5 yrs older than me and is very positive with his mindset. Also into fitness. Another yay! He lives north of Orlando. Boo! But he has two sons in the St. Pete/Clearwater area, so many times we meet halfway for both of us, around St. Pete. Or, I go up his way for a weekend, since I can take my work with me and he usually works 6 days a week due to staff shortages. (He works as a fitness director.) Oh, and he’s liberally minded and open to eating vegan or vegetarian food when he’s with me. Yay! Neither one of us makes a lot of money so it’s good that we like to spend time in parks, going for walks/visiting the beach, etc. We plan to go indoor rock climbing together in Tampa the next time we are up there.

Waiting for sunset near the Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda, Florida

The finances — eh, they’re there. Still working on improving them and increasing my income. Working with several different companies is helping in that I never have a shortage of work. I also learn about different types of proceedings and how they need to be transcribed, as well as from different jurisdictions. I won’t bore you with the details, but it does make my work more interesting as well.

So that’s about all that has changed. I have realized that being a nomad is just too difficult when you have as many furballs as me. I can’t afford nor would I want to drive around a huge Class A at this point. A Class C might work, but I would always be terrified about any of them getting out or being unhappy, and that is no way to live. Plus, living the RV life isn’t always that cheap, and I really do love being near the water. Even if you live somewhere inland like where my boyfriend lives, you are still just an hour away from a huge body of water like the Atlantic. To do the RV thing more cheaply means you live in the desert southwest or where there is a lot of BLM land, and I really need the greenery that I have around me here. I have come to realize that. I do miss the wide open spaces of the southwest though.

There are always compromises, aren’t there?

Anyway, I wanted to write this post while I had the ambition to do so, and while my hands weren’t hurting from typing 15-20,000 words in a day. Yes, you read that right. Not a typo.

Thank you to Dawn from Change is Hard for inspiring me to write this evening, after dropping a comment on my blog letting me know she was thinking about me. I admire her ability to blog so consistently. And if you haven’t read her blog or seen her pictures, well, you’re really missing something.

Again, I do want to write more. It’s just hard when you feel like you don’t have much to say, or you do feel like you have something to say but feel the need to earn an income for your furballs and put a bowl of food on the floor for them. Life, right? I’m not complaining. I love working from home and watching my babies sleep (seemingly all day, lol.)

Steel (roommate’s dog) next to my baby boy, Snuggles. Look at the size difference!

See what I mean? Lots of sleeping going on in this photo.

Sooo much sleeping goes on during the day here. Sometimes I even join them. It cracks me up to go lay down on my bed and then hear the pitter patter of little feet as they wake up from their naps, only to realize that Mom has moved. So they pick their bodies up, stretch, and then come in and lay back down next to me. Sometimes, the bed is very crowded… LOL.

Anyway, I feel like I sound like a broken record when I say that I am sorry for the long lengths of time between posts. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. At least some of the photos were cute, right?

So what’s next?

July 5, 2019July 5, 2019Terri

That is a very good and very loaded question. As you know, I’m back in Florida because the cold in the northeast was too much for me to handle after being away from it for a few years. Apologies in advance if this post seems a bit disjointed but I hope you like the pictures. I’m trying to work through some things that keep bouncing around in my mind. Writing helps to clarify them sometimes. So here goes….

I have been working hard at the legal transcription, working for a few different companies as a 1099. They pay better than the one I have been working with the past year or so. When you type as much as I do, 25 cents/page more can really add up in terms of how much you make every week. So I work hard and I make my deadlines and in so doing, create a good reputation for myself with those folks.

Finances:

To put it bluntly, they haven’t been great since I left my job at Harvard. Toward the end of my time in Boston, I didn’t have credit cards. When I decided to move to Utah, I got myself one, “just in case.” Dumb move on my part. I now have two cards that are almost maxed out (one only got to that point a month or two ago when my Sophie cost me $3K at the vet when she had to get an MRI.) I owe my roommate about $1K from when we moved in (we owed first, last and security deposit plus an un-refundable pet deposit which really added up.) The credit cards are at 20% and 15%. They are just killing me with the interest.

So I know that some may disagree with this decision, but I have decided to take money out of my retirement to pay it all off. Yes, I know it has long-term consequences. I hate myself for taking from my future self. But with the rate of interest I am paying now, I see this as the best thing to do. My retirement funds aren’t earning 20% per month.

We are also withholding money to handle the tax bill when it comes — borrowing from myself before I’m 59 1/2 means the amount distributed gets imputed to me as income for the year and I also pay a 10% penalty on the amount withdrawn. I have about $212K in retirement right now and am taking a distribution of about $19,900 in total. Living in Florida, I only pay federal income tax, thankfully. So that will help for sure, come tax time. My plan is to then close out the credit cards, one by one. (They’ve been in the freezer for about 6 weeks now.) I will probably keep my Care Credit card just for pet emergencies and even then, I’d rather stab a fork in my eye than have to use it.

Once the cards are paid off, I am going to focus on building up my savings for a few months and then start paying extra on either my car or my private student loan. The car loan is below $2K at this point, and I have a very good interest rate of about 3.9%. My payment is roughly $142/month. The private loan is down to about $8900 and because the rate is variable, it is up to about 5.25% right now. My payment is about $97/month.

My federal loan payments are based on my income, so I pay about $10/month for each one (two total). Yes, the payments are strung out for years and years, but I’m fine with that trade-off because it allows me to live my life. And when I look at how much I have paid back over the years, trust me, the federal government has gotten a lot of money paid back from me — the principal amount borrowed and then A LOT in addition.

I am also starting up a Roth IRA because all of my other retirement savings are what we call tax-deferred, so when I do start taking money out on a regular basis, I’ll get hit with the taxes at that point. With a Roth, I’ve already paid the taxes so distributions later on will be tax free. (If you’re reading this from outside the US, I realize this may not make sense at all. My country is screwed up, what can I say?)

I really don’t spend much money at all, other than on food for myself, my animals, and to put gas in my car. The other day I did buy a yearly parking sticker for Lee County which cost $60, but now I can park at many nature preserves and some beaches and not have to worry about feeding meters. Knowing how much I plan to use these spaces in the upcoming year, I know it’s a good choice for me. I really do love my time spent outside in nature, hearing the birds sing or listening to the wind ruffle through the trees around me, hearing the waves crash onto the shore.

I go to the library a lot to work (when I want to be around people), and to check out books (yes, I still like the hard copy feel in my hands.) So that’s free and doesn’t cost me anything other than the cost of gas to get there. And I don’t go every day because I have my own home office at this duplex and the animals all tend to congregate with me anyway, and that is a super calming feeling.

Living plans for next year:

I do have a roommate and for reasons I won’t go into on here, I know we will be going our separate ways next year when the lease is up. So I’m planning ahead and considering my options. Do I move someplace cheaper and smaller with my animals? Perhaps. Do I somehow buy a trailer and finally pull the cord and do the nomadic thing? Working remotely as a transcriptionist will allow me to do that. But I would likely need to get another vehicle if I do that — one that can tow even a small trailer or a Class B type vehicle.

If it were just me and I didn’t have my furballs to feed and care for, I would be happy with just a small teardrop trailer, honestly. But it’s not just me. There are three, albeit senior, cats to worry about as well as my two small pups. I want them to be comfortable. The cats are approximately 14, 13 and somewhere between 12-15 in age. (With Honey Bun, we’re not totally sure of her age.) Snuggles is roughly 10-12ish and I was told Sophie was 7 last year, but I have my doubts as to the accuracy of that. I think she’s younger.

Being able to work from home, I see what they do all day. They sleep, eat, drink water and poop. Sophie plays with Steel (my roommate’s German Shepherd, on whom I think she has developed a crush; it’s so cute), but even then there’s a whole lot of sleeping going on. Even so, I want them to have enough space to feel comfortable.

However, I don’t want something that is built like crap and gets terrible gas mileage. And let’s be honest, most RVs are built like crap. And I am not a handy person, to say the least. So whatever I go with, I want it to be pretty simple, because let’s face it, I’m a simple person when it comes down to it. I’m considering the Wee Roll campers which are made in Florida, among others. They are lightweight, would allow me to stand up, can have an AC built in (necessary with animals), aluminum, and over-constructed from what I have read about them. I like the sound of all of that.

BLUE AND CLOUDS — Love the blueness of the water from nearby Jaycee Park on a warm afternoon

I have been considering trying to see a lot of national parks. Living in the southwest, although I was far from the ocean, I was able to see some amazing ones, and lived super close to Zion National Park. (It blows my mind to this day how close by I was, and yes, I did take advantage of it.) I have been reading different books about them, and want to really see more of this beautiful country. I’ve never seen the Grand Tetons, or Olympic National Park and the forests near there. I’ve never seen the Badlands. So many different mountain ranges in this country that I’ve never seen, or only seen from the window of a plane.

I want to live simply. I want to see things before I die. I am happy being with myself as my own company. Yes, I sometimes feel lonely, but that happens with everyone. I like my freedom, not having to respond to an invitation to hang out (when it rarely does happen, lol) by saying I have to check with my partner’s schedule first. (Maybe this just means I haven’t met that perfect person for me yet. Who knows?)

PERSPECTIVE — I like taking pictures and looking at the trees through a different perspective

And honestly, I feel like I was put on this earth to make an impact, in some way, shape or form. I want to improve at my writing and taking photographs of the landscapes I see around me. I want to share that with others. After having read the book, Before They’re Gone, I want to see different parts of this beautiful country I call home and share it with others, be it through my writing or photography. (The book is about an outdoor writer who takes his family to several national parks over the course of a year and interweaves his thoughts and research about global climate change and its effects on the parks throughout. I highly recommend it.) Mandy Lea Photo has been very inspiring to me in that vein as well. I’ve followed her on YouTube for a long time now.

But I also want to be environmentally conscious, and is my traipsing around everywhere pulling a trailer or driving a Class B or van responsible in that vein? That’s also led me to thinking about living in an intentional community type situation. It’s something I have thought about a lot over the years. Dancing Rabbit is an example of one. However, then I would have to stay in one place, and I need to do some soul searching to see if that’s really the right thing for me to do at this point in my life. Many of them allow visitors (Dancing Rabbit even has a visitor program or internship program set up), to allow people to see if it really is a good fit for them or not.

CRAB — Little crab, just because I thought he was cute

So I hope that will happen next year, but if I need a bit more time to do it in a financially stable way, I will take that time if needed. I’ve made some rash decisions these past few years and they have cost me financially.

I’m still trying to find my way, folks. I wish I had all the answers. But then, I wouldn’t have challenges or self-discovery to work through and life would be boring, right?

It’s all about the journey, right? Thanks for reading, and especially for sticking with me if you are a longtime reader. I’m working back to writing more regularly.

*Disclosure: some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.

Why, hello there! (READ: the blog is not dead.)

June 9, 2019June 9, 2019Terri

If you read this whole blog post, this map will make sense. I promise.

No, the blog isn’t dead. It’s just been on ….. life support, I guess you could say these past several months. I am so sorry everyone. Let me just catch you up on what has gone on in my life, as succintly as I can, over the last (gulp) 10 months. Read more →

Writing for Animals!

RV Surprise!

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