Heidi Chronicles: Cookie Time - Won't You Join Us?

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1132051/

I had to use the name Melvatoo, as Dave told me there was already a Melva registered...

Melva,

I had a bunch going on all at once on multiple fronts but have responded now. Hopefully, you've seen it.

He may be right, but as copyright issues can get you in DEEP water as a professional, I think it best to be certain. I'm going to check to be sure (when time allows). I'll let you know what I find.

As an example of the cost of copyright violation, if an artist is found guilty of copyright fraud, the artist is usually required to forfeit all money gained from the work in violation and destroy all copies of the work. If the same rules apply to books, that would mean that you would forfeit all money derived from your book and be required by law to destroy all copies of the book. That's a steep price to pay. Thus even though I think he is probably right, I would sleep better if I knew for certain.

Cheryl, all I can say about your writing is that it's given me many, many hours of reading enjoyment over the last few months. I started in reading about Heidi late, so went back and read about 3 or 4 years of writing in a short time and have been keeping up to date since. I have to admit that I love the tiny details and the wordyness too. Hopefully you won't change too much in your book.

Here is a question for you. Do you think it was raccoons that shredded the cushions on this lounger? I came home from work awhile back and found it all shredded up and most of the scraps had disappered too. Do you think they might have taken them to make a nest? Also they had ripped opened a bag of Preen that had been sitting by my back door. I would think they could tell by smell that it wasn't food. Or maybe they were just bored and decided to party a little that night?

Susan,

Thank you very much for that input. It's quite helpful, and I will keep your words in mind about not changing things too much.

I don't honestly know the answer to your questions. Nothing in my direct experience with the raccoons would relate, nothing I can think of off hand, that is. Regrettably, however, I think the raccoons may have been responsible for the cushion damage. While I've not experienced anything of the sort (I don't have any cushions or fabric in the backyard.), I have read that one of the problems associated with raccoons as pets is their tendency to rip and shred upholstered furniture. One long time owner of a pet raccoon actually suggested that anyone determined to keep a raccoon as a pet should eliminate all upholstered items from their house. She said even mattresses are not safe with raccoons around.

I don't know why raccoons do these things (damage upholstery). It may be for bedding, but since pampered pets also do it, it seems like it may be due more to instinct and/or the simple pleasure they derive from feeling things. As Ruth pointed out years ago, they just LOVE to feel things with their hands. This seems to be an innate characteristic of the species possibly a result of having evolved in part to find food in murky streams - hence those individuals who excelled at finding food in such conditions prospered.

They seem to derive great pleasure as well as information from touching and feeling their world. It's a most curious characteristic, something I've not seen in other animals and something I've very much enjoyed observing. Just as baby Dennis took so much time that one night to read every nanometer of the surface of my finger as though in braille, raccoons seem mesmerized and almost intoxicated when feeling things in this manner just for the sheer pleasure of the tactile sensation and the resultant information gathered.

With each new container I offered them, they enjoyed just feeling and investigating the tactile sensation of each new material and surface under water and later enjoyed feeling any items which collected in the water. When the pool 1st arrived, they felt the man-made ripples on the plastic bottom endlessly. Later when I gave them the (unused) kitty litter box filled with water, the process started all over again. This new item was plastic but it was an entirely different plastic, and they were each very eager to explore this entirely new feel at great length. Likewise the brass dish, cement birdbath, and plastic food containers. This tactile thing is not at all limited to water either, Dennis' enjoyment at exploring human skin and the surface of my finger being an example.

Then again, it's entirely possible that the females may be on the lookout for promising materials to line their nests in spring before the babies arrive and/or in fall when pursuing insulation to keep the winter den warm. One of my favorite videos is that of a raccoon snatching a small rug through a doggy door, ostensibly thinking it would make excellent bedding. But, again, I've not experienced this particular form of theft probably because I've not made fabric available in the backyard.

I did put out rugs, towels, blankets, a dog bed, a thin, English saddle pad, and even a very good down feather bed (by mistake) on the front porch for the cats when they 1st showed up in (I guess it was) Feb. Although the raccoons started showing up around the front door often back then, they never damaged or stole any of the bedding items (or not that I noticed. I guess it's possible they could have stolen something w/o me realizing it was gone).

One morning I went out to find that the (stuffed) comfort dog I had left out for the cats had been dragged out onto the front yard (from beside the front door). I suspected the raccoons of this since they enjoy playing with such toys and the cats never showed any interest in the dog. The item was unharmed though which brings up another thing. I've put a number of stuffed animals out back for the raccoons to play with. They enjoy playing with those items, but have never torn any open to get the stuffing out or even ripped them.

Near the end of the period of keeping bedding at the front door for the cats, I started to notice that the fluffy rugs, saddle pad, and towels were frequently being dragged out onto and down the walkway. Again I suspected the raccoons of this. This behavior looked more like they may have been shopping for items to take with them and then probably abandoned the items when they proved difficult to carry and/or when passersby on the street frightened the raccoons away. This, again, was at the front door where the raccoons are not at all comfortable. Now that the cats come inside, I no longer put food or bedding out there for them.

Now that you mentioned this, I think I might put a few items of this sort (old stuff) in the backyard to see if the raccoons might be interested in them to keep the den warm this winter. If I remember I might try this again in late winter/early spring for kit season.

As to the Preen, I did have an almost identical experience and my reaction was identical to yours. I remain totally perplexed. In my case, a year or so before the arrival of the cats (to bring raccoons to the front door), I stashed a bag of lawn insecticide under the bench on the front porch. This was a broad spectrum type insecticide for fleas, ticks, grubs, and other such insects. It was formulated specifically for use on lawns in spring. Despite the obvious disadvantages, I was planning to put it on the front lawn (only) mainly to eliminate the flea problem for Widget. I had left it on the porch for the gardener to apply.

The gardener forgot to apply the insecticide. 'knowing' that no animal would want that poison, I left the unopened bag under the bench on the porch so the gardener could find it when he returned in 2wks. In the mean time, and specifically on a night when I had failed to feed the raccoons, I awoke the next morning to find the area in front of the front door covered in the granular insecticide, the torn bag nearby.

Even though at the time I had never seen the raccoons in the front yard, I suspected that one of them had done this. Like you, I was particularly surprised that they would not have known from smell that it was not food even before opening it. In my case, since it hadn't just been opened but had been spread all over the area at the front door, the mat area, it looked like the reason was something other than food.

Since the bag had been there for almost 2wks when it happened and since it specifically occurred on one of the rare nights when I didn't feed the raccoons, I always thought the spreading of noxious chemicals all over my front door mat had been an editorial comment intended to convey their unhappiness at being left w/o food. That was back when Dennis was a teen or yearling, and I often suspected her of the deed.

The raccoons in general and Dennis in particular do sometimes leave these little comments to express their annoyance at a perceived slight. There have been several such incidents. The only one I can recall at the moment was the poop left beside the pool some years back when I left a bunch of potted plants soaking in the (then) new pool for a day or so thus rendering it unavailable for play.

In your case, assuming the raccoons did the Preen deed, it may have been some other reason entirely. I also try to keep in mind that I have opossum visitors, too. Still, raccoons seem like the most likely offenders given their extreme dexterity, curiosity, love of play, and tactile acuity. For me such minor annoyances and the resultant extra level of care required to avoid them (i.e., I no longer leave bags of lawn products out) are something I liken to the requirements of living with pets. (Cocoa recently broke a favorite and expensive porcelain cup and a small porcelain doll. I hated loosing these items but see it as my own fault as I knew I should have moved them before the cats came to live inside.)

I'm especially sorry to see the damage to your cushions and wish I could offer help or at least think of someone other than the raccoons on which to blame the deed. (Man, I sure am glad you like my wordiness. lol. as once again I have turned what should have been a simple 'yes' or 'no' into full length article. If only I could find a way to get paid by the word, I would never again have to worry about money.)

Susan,

Just curious as this is only very loosely related, but have you seen the video of the damage Willie did to his owner's kitchen when he was left at home alone for a while with nothing to do? It is positively amazing! As much as I have come to love the raccoons - and I really have - I would have been furious. The owner says the restoration cost him $10k (just one room).

Since I pretty much know they mess with everything, I'm try not to leave anything in the back yard that I don't want them to play with. Even when working in the backyard in winter I'm careful not to leave a shirt or jacket draped over a chair during the daytime when I come in for a break, especially in the later afternoon, as I can easily imagine that I might return to find it long gone.

I'd like to add one more thing to my little 'me' moment of yesterday - just to put things into perspective. My DX (that's dear X, intended with a modicum of humor), ever quick to help me stay grounded when receiving accolades and awards (mine, not his), kindly pointed out that someone receives that award every year (and English teachers in every class in every school in every municipality in the country and elsewhere likely have a favorite or favorites every year and so on), and when you do the math of x awards or teachers times x years (and x schools and so on where applicable) it soon becomes apparent that this in not such a small, select, or 'special' group at all, but that there really are many, many such people, too many, in fact, to be indicative of any kind of gift or genius much less a probability of success.

Was that man a gem, or what? (she says with just the slightest hint of sarcasm) I can hardly believe I let him get away. ;-)

Sheri,

Thanks for the info on the flooding. I'm glad you weren't effected. The idea of water rising enough to enter the house is of particular concern to me and seems especially prone to occur in the Outer Banks region during hurricane season.

How about the idea of avoiding those reaches when typing? I was just trying to help find a solution. I, too, went through a period during which I was loosing posts frequently, so I know just how frustrating it can be. I'm pretty sure you can also turn that 'feature' off, the one that blows things away. I just don't know how to do it w/o looking it up, but that might be a good option for you (and me).

What's wrong with 'poof'? I think it describes the process perfectly. lol

When I start posting a LOT - you know, like now - I'm almost always trying to avoid doing something. (lol)

As I mentioned the other day, Heidi has decided to drastically reduce the size of the buffet crowd. It looks like she has it down to just her kits and two extra kits now. The two extra kits have shown up for several days now, always right behind Heidi and her kits and always w/o their mother. And Heidi even allows them to mull around her and her kits as if they were part of the family, something she never does with other raccoon's kits.

It reminds me of the time when Screech was hanging out with the nanny. It's as though, for purposes of dinner, Heidi has agreed to by the nanny for these 2 kits now. I'm thinking maybe she was ready to kick the mother out (either jerry or one of the yearlings) but wanted to allow the kits to eat at the buffet a bit longer. Since she is now the only adult at the buffet, she seems to be babysitting these 2 kits, something I've never seen her do before.

As I had expected this new setup is fabulous for saving resources. For the last few weeks there I had been filling a small (6lb, I think) cat food bag all the way up to the very top daily to feed that crowd of older, and still growing, kits. A large bag of cat food was gone almost as soon as I opened it. Now they use only a small fraction of that, about 3 to 4 cups, so it's much easier on the wallet, but...

Man, I really miss all my little friends and Dennis and Bast and...
Heidi is so important to me. I think the world of her, but her family is SO boring. They are just so well behaved and well trained. They sit quietly and eat. They are even BETTER behaved now without the bad influence of all those other kits. Boring! No body runs up to me for attention and treats anymore. : (
Even Heidi's kits pay me less attention now w/o the other kits and Dennis to egg them on. Major bummer. Heidi is just too perfect, darn it.

So yesterday I was behaving very, very badly. Really, I was. And I knew it, too. But I had NO idea that Heidi would do what she did. LOL.

Almost from the time they arrived I had been messing with the kits who were on either side of Heidi and just in front of me. Petey, who doesn't care for cookies, was quietly eating from what has now become his dish. Without the others there for competition, even HE is paying me less attention now.

I swear it's almost as if Heidi, having run everybody else off, sat her kids down and read them the riot act about how they are getting older now and need to behave properly at dinner and here are the rules: no talking, no milling about, no playing, no begging for treats, etc. "We arrive, we stay in one spot and eat quietly and quickly and then we leave."

So, like any addict trying to get a fix, I kept holding cookie bits out to the kits trying to get them to come to me - because I was so lonely all by myself 2ft away all of a sudden. : (
Heidi's other 2 kits, the only 2 that like cookies, aren't nearly so comfortable around me as Petey. One would never come to me or take cookies from my hand. The other, although timid, would come over when Dennis and the other kits were around me to make me look safe, but not anymore.

I kept leaning forward and holding the cookie piece out. Suddenly, without the others around for encouragement, the sight of my arm reaching toward them caused Heidi's other 2 kits to feel threatened. I would reach out with the cookie and they would back away and sometimes even run into the bushes. When I removed my arm from their space, they would return, but being kids they could never seem to remember where they started from.

The kits would return and mill about trying to get situated. They would argue and disagree over who belonged where. The timid one who always eats beside Heidi (there is always, always one of these each year. One assertive one like Petey and one clingy one. The others somewhere in between.) would return but would sometimes try to go to the other side of Heidi as if to get some protection from me, but Heidi didn't want that kit on that side because that was where her large pile of food was and where she wanted to eat. Heidi would have to deal with the kit to get it to go back where it belonged. Sometimes she would stop and fuss at it gently and then resume eating.

The other kit would sometimes try to return to Heidi's side instead of his spot a little farther over. Heidi would have to send him back where he was supposed to be. Then when she finally got everybody situated again, I would stick my hand out again with the cookie - and start the whole thing all over again.

I really wasn't trying to be annoying. I wanted one of the kits to come over and take the cookie. I was missing my crowd of kits and all that attention. I needed my fix. Just one hit. That's all.

So we went through I don't know how many iterations of this thing with me holding the cookie piece out and the 2 kits backing away scared and then getting all out of place and getting in Heidi's way and on the wrong side and...

Finally, Heidi raised her head and looked me dead in the eye, just glaring at me eye to eye. The communication was as clear as it could possibly be. It was as if she were saying in English, "Do I have to treat YOU like one of the kids, too? Sit you down, read you the riot act, explain the rules. Or can you sit back, behave yourself, and act like a grown up?" And I mean she really held that stare for what seemed an eternity, too! She was pretty annoyed - and hungry - and disappointed in me.

OMG! That moment was unbelievable. Unbelievable! But I did get the message. Loud and clear. And I sat back on my little garden buddy seat, put my cookies away, and left the kits alone so they could eat and behave. After that things went much more smoothly. Everybody ate quietly and calmly for the rest of the meal - making it clear once and for all who the instigator had been.

I thought about it later. That moment. Heidi's face just over a foot from mine and inches from my outstretched hand. Her stare so intense and so long held. Her 'words' so clear. It was unlike anything I had experienced to date. Perfect communication w/o words. But there was something more. We had taken a huge leap forward. She had dressed me down with her eyes. It was the 1st time she had ever done that, the 1st time she had ever disagreed openly with my behavior.

She hadn't tried to tell me what to do, but she had let me know that my behavior wasn't ok. It was like that rare moment when a friend trusts your friendship enough to express discontent with something you've done, something that previously would have been swept under the rug. It was that moment when you knew your relationship had just made a giant leap forward. Now the two of you could talk about anything because your relationship was just that strong now.

Heidi could have walked away. She could have taken the kits back into the forest and waited for me to leave before returning to finish the meal, something she had probably done before when I was in this kind of mood and behaving so badly. Don't risk upsetting the meal ticket. Just circumvent the problem. Left alone she'll go inside soon. But, no, not this time. This time she had taken the risk to tell me that I was acting badly. This time she had trusted that our communication was good enough to enable that and our friendship was strong enough to allow it.

In the army, 'DX' was used to denote worn out or otherwise unusable items that were to be destroyed. I'm glad you DXed that guy!

Interesting twist to the relationship between Heidi and you. I think Heidi has always been in charge, but this seems to be the first time she ever felt the need to let you know it. LOL. Behave yourself silly human!

Thinking about the loss of the crowd and how fun they were...wouldn't it be fun to fill the pool now that Dennis isn't around?

I love what you said here: (she says with just the slightest hint of sarcasm) LOL!

Interesting idea, June,

Hmm. That might even help to liven things up since the kits would surely want to play in the new pool which they have never enjoyed before. The downside is that I would have to do actual work. I'm tossing the idea around.

I was having something of a silly mood when typing all that. Thanks for letting me know you liked it, both for the compliment and the valuable info re what works and what doesn't.

Did everyone hear that Dave (DG founder) and Trish had a new baby boy today?

http://cubits.org/trishspot/thread/view/37499/
A cutie too! (they shared pics)

KyWoods,

That's a good one (about the DX meaning). I cringed when I saw that you were stating some accepted meaning of my newly formed acronym - before I saw the actual meaning. I thought, OMG, what hilarious meaning have I unintentionally assigned to my X, or even worse, what not so funny meaning, fearing I may have just committed some unthinkable social faux pas. Whew! Glad to see it was something that would not require me to go into hiding underground for a while.

In all honesty, guys, I didn't hate the man. He had is faults as we all do, and this kind of thing was surely a prime example.

I'd like to share with you another, very real moment from life with the X, something I've never shared with anyone before. He did have an interesting perspective on life, and there was no chance of using logic to get him to see that he might be wrong. The youngest of 5 boys, he was 'the baby'. Cradled by his entire family but especially his mom, a wonderful, caring woman who could not let that last one grow up and cut the string. So here's that moment I promised:

As previously mentioned, I was the caregiver for my mother who had Alzheimers. I watched as she parts of herself were slowly stripped away until she was barely more than alive, living in the end the life of an amoeba, unable to speak or move or even watch TV. Worse, there was evidence, to me at least, that she was in considerable pain much of the time yet unable even to communicate that fact to her doctors and nurses. The day she died, I stood guard at her bedside determined not to allow a well meaning but clearly confused medical community to take steps to extend her suffering one more day. Dying, btw, can take a interminable length of time, and it took the last ounce of strength in my being to see it to the end, doing what I knew was right, but certainly not what was easy.

So imagine when that day was finally over and my mother had left this world after more than a decade of unimaginable suffering. Even worse, as she was my last remaining parent and very nearly my last living relative, as much as I knew that her death was the right thing for her, it left me feeling amazingly alone in the world. In the months following her death and after the split with my X, a friend from Egypt who was here as a university professor would say to me, "You have no idea what it's like to be alone in a foreign land." "You are right," I replied, "But I do know what it's like to be alone in the universe. As alone as you may feel here, you know that you can go home to the waiting arms of family. I, on the other hand, have no family anywhere, and that, my friend, is the most amazingly terrifying thought one can imagine."

Getting back now to those amazingly empty days following my mother's death, days when I had no idea where to go from here. I knew only that it was the end of an era, and nothing would ever be the same again. Not surprisingly I walked around in the haze of grief during those weeks immediately following her death, my mind whirling with such a cacophony of emotions and trying to make sense of it all.

One day, my X looked me dead in the eyes and said, "Cheryl, it has been a week now since your mother's death, and here you are still just moping around like the world is over. Get a grip & snap out of it already." (I am SO serious. The man actually said that, and he was serious.)

Explaining that I had only one mother and all that went no where with him. I had been wallowing in pity too long now and needed to get on with my life (especially since this was starting to impact him now). You could just look at his background, his family, and his life and see that the man had lived the perfect Ozzy & Harriet existence. Nothing really bad had ever happened to him, and he was without the ability to empathize with anyone's pain.

I kid you not, true story. A few short weeks later his team lost the World Series, and he was totally crushed. There was no comforting the man. He took to his bed for days in abject depression unwilling even to go to work. And all this over a sports team, a group of people he didn't even know personally; people who weren't even dead but who, looking at the glass 1/2 full, had just beat out every other team in the league except for one. His team had come in 2nd, and he spent weeks acting as though his life was OVER! After telling me to get a grip...

True story. Not kidding. I've always needed to tell that story to a group of logical people who might actually be able to see the complete and total irony in it. Anyhow, I didn't hate him. Couldn't live with him, but didn't hate him. He was misguided.

Edited to clarify that this is a response to the comment about the meaning of DX not the later comment about Dave's baby.

This message was edited Oct 7, 2010 7:23 AM

Susan,

No! You think Heidi is in control? No! I wanted to be in charge. (slight whine) I at least wanted to be an equal. You mean, I'm not even an equal? (more whining)

Yeah, you are probably right. (acceptance punctuated with a fading whine)

KyWoods & June,

Thanks for the updates.

Cheryl,
Although you may not feel like you have family, I believe you do! My feelings for you are very real. I never had a sister, but I think I would think of her like you. Even if you go all the way back to Adam, we are all related. I'm pretty sure that you have other "family friends" here too!
Please don't feel alone. You are just too special not to love!

A Hug & A Prayer
Sheri & Elvis, Sara, Marley & Dogwood deKat

Sheri,

Thank you SO very, very much!

When I wrote that about being alone, I was referring to how I felt in the days and weeks following my mother's death. It's difficult for most people when they loose their last parent, but in my case pretty much everyone in my family had died at a young age - not a good sign for my own longevity from a genetic standpoint. It seemed like everyone in the family had only 1 or 2. The small size of the family meant that as people started to die, there was no one left. My Dad had only 1 brother who was older. Both had already died. Since my marriage hadn't worked out either, I hadn't managed to make that new family that would sustain me. It was a difficult time for me (at that time) finding that I was alone in the world and trying to learn to deal with that. (At the time) it was as though I suddenly woke up one day and everyone was gone. I felt like an orphan. I was a relatively young adult at the time, too.

I don't feel so alone now (except maybe at times like when I was so seriously ill with the flu and dehydrated and such and alone. that really wasn't good at all). I do think of you guys as my friends, and having all of you there means a lot to me.

Please don't worry. I'm fine. Really, I am. I'm sorry if my words this morning worried you guys. I was talking about how I felt then. That was a decade or so ago.

I just got back from a trip to the unemployment office. I was afraid I might be there for many, long hours (took reading material and laptop for entertainment), so I tried to get Cocoa to go outside as I was leaving. I've left him in the house before many time but never for more than a few hours. Anyhow, the little 'rat' would not go outside. He came to the door but refused to go out. He looked at me like, "you go out if you want to. I'm going to stay inside and take a nap. I'll see you when you get back." LOL. I finally had to leave him inside. Sure enough when I got back he was snoozing on a chair looking quite unconcerned - and still not ready to go out. He's too much, and he sure has come a long way.

Thank you for being there for me, Sheri. (Thank all of you.) I don't know what I would do with all of you. Please don't worry about me as I am fine. I promise. :-)

But I really, really appreciate that you cared enough to be worried about me. :-)

I'm having some trials and tribulations lately, hormones, money woes, health worries, and so on, but I imagine many people struggle with these same problems. and it's not all bad. and I know I'm not alone.

Being broke has helped me to learn a lot about how to preserve what I have. I've learned not only to cook (some) but to make some pretty yummy stuff from the most meager of ingredients. I'm darn proud of that. The other day I cooked a package of Spanish rice mix with a can of Rotel. Then I stirred in a spoon of Splenda and it was really good. Wish I had another can of Rotel. I still have some pretty decent food, better than that even, but I just down to the stuff you have to prepare.

Now I've discovered the Broke Diet. My pants were getting loose. I could pull them up under my arm pits. I weighed myself this morning and found I had lost 15lbs. Woo-hoo. It's not that I don't have food, so don't worry about me. It's just that I don't have any Fun food. There is nothing left in this house that one can just grab and eat in a hurry. If I'm not hungry enough to cook, I have to go without. Best diet ever.

Sometimes I'm actually hungry, and I don't mean just wanting to eat for the heck of it, but I'm too lazy to go in the kitchen and cook, so I do without. Sometimes when I'm hungry I go and open the fridge and see that there is absolutely no 'fast' food in there, no processed food, no snack food, nothing that can't be ready in less than 1/2 hour. Then I close the door and say forget it. Fabulous diet. It really helps you figure out just how hungry you really are.

Don't worry. I'm fine. Luv you guys!

Hey, you are probably eating healthier without all the convenience foods!

KyWoods,

It is absolutely true. No doubt about it. When I was working, I was not only eating convenience food but also picking up dinner on the way home from a restaurant or drive thru or grabbing a sub or calling for delivery of Chinese or Italian foods. I really was sick of eating that food, but I was hungry and tired and it was easy to pick something up than try to cook - plus I didn't know how to cook anything.

The reason I had all that food stockpiled at home (and the spoiled food that went to the raccoons) was that I was craving 'real food', so I would buy the stuff at the grocery store. Then having no time or energy left at the end of the day, I would end up buying and eating ready made food. It was a vicious cycle. All the excess salt and fat and chemicals and such in the prepared food was killing me, and I didn't even want to eat that food anyhow. I was sick of it. I don't miss it at all now. I eat much tastier food now. It's just sometimes frustrating to have to cook it 1st, especially when I 1st get up in the morning, but as I was saying above, being forced to cook if I want to eat has helped me decide how hungry I really am and has helped me to loose weight without trying and even while eating sometimes high calorie foods.

Like this morning I had a grilled cheese s/w, high calorie example. It was the 1st time I'd had one in years since I'm not really very fond of American cheese. I ended up squeezing most of the cheese out on the plate and tossing it though. Most of the time right now I don't eat such high fat food as that, but I am eating a lot of pasta and rice because it's what I have on hand. I'm not eating anybodies idea of diet food but still I've lost a noticeable amount of weight.

Hey, if you needed to lose weight, that's great! I used to do that when I was a poor single Mom. I called it 'the poverty diet', lol.

The Poverty Diet! That's a great name for it. I think I'll write the diet book for my 3rd book. LOL. Diet books never fail - no matter how ridiculous they are.

I'll write about how 1st you need to misplace your job and try to live on your ever dwindling savings plus the food you have on hand some of which is there because you didn't want it when you had money. Then, when you can no longer afford chips, cookies, candy, cokes, burgers, and fries the pounds will just start to melt away.

Phase 2 of the diet is when you reach the point where you actually celebrate when you find a can of string beans that expired 2yrs earlier in the back of the cabinet. (I did just now find a large bag of Jasmine rice in the cabinet. Yippee. Jasmine rice is especially good rice. Still, you do have to cook it, so I decided to wait until later, much later, like tomorrow.)

And, the best thing is you can 'eat all you want' on this diet. People especially love the eat all you want diets. Oh, I can see it now. I'm going to be a multi-millionaire.

The best thing about rice is that it can be kept fresh for more than a decade....I only know because the "nuts to the north" of me have caves filled with it for their army to use in case of war (while their own people starve to death)

Part one of the Poverty Diet has to be the stockpiling of all of that healthy food in the first place.

Back in the mid'80s, my DH deployed for a year and just after he left my job downsized to part-time. We had stockpiled a huge amount of food before he left, and just after he left; the freezer quit working and all of that food rotted. I was feeding a 80# dog and our very large, athletic 9 yo Son, so I just (secretively, so that he didn't get a complex about it) quit eating anything 'rich' as he really needed to have it all as leftovers for his 6 huge meals/snacks a day. ya' know how it can be; keeping a football player fed is hard enough without $ problems. I lost some weight that I thought was never going to go away and I ate lots of wonderful, healthy food. gosh, I need to do that diet again...

Just checking in to let you know I'm okay, Cheryl, and to thank you for the concern. The weather didn't have a bad impact here; just had a health setback that sent me to the hospital for a couple days, and am still trying to recover my energy/ambition/whatever. I've just now caught up on this thread and the kitty one, and am enjoying that. And to echo an earlier post, you do have lots of caring family, Cheryl, even though the need is now less critical. You're a remarkable person, and have enriched many many lives, both human and animal.

Ruth,

Hi! It's so good to hear from you! I was worried. I kept trying to tell myself you were on vacation or something, but I was afraid you were sick (and it seems I was right). I'm so glad that you are feeling somewhat better now.

Thanks also for the compliment. All of you have enriched my life, too, very much, and it means a great deal to me to have you here.

Welcome back!

Good to see you again, Ruth, and sorry to hear you weren't well.

Thanks much, Cheryl and Ky; I'm slowly getting back to whatever passes for normal with me, lol. Haven't been in the hospital since I was a kid, and found it pretty exhausting. That whole shtick of waking you up every time you fall asleep is sadly not a joke; the nurses are very apologetic about it, but that doesn't help much.

***this post doesn't contain any raccoon related content***

So far in life I've not had the opportunity to enjoy the hospitality of the medical community for more than one night at a time, one such night as a preschooler and another more recently following surgery. All that I recall of my preschool stay is the huge, long, scary windows in the old building during the seemingly endless overnight hours when I would have been thrilled to have a visitor of any kind, even a nurse. On my post surgical stay I was too high on pain killers to care much what they did.

I can, however, relate to the indescribably frustration of finally having one's long hours of unspeakable suffering (or just feeling downright wretched) temporarily alleviated by the nothingness of sleep only to then be awakened by some well meaning caretaker seeking to ask how one is feeling. This usually happened to me in my own home while being hovered over by a caring but misguided loved one.

As for hospitals (or other medical establishments), my best example of the insanity of hospital staff came during the hours when my mother lay dying (I apologize for again bringing up this unpleasant subject, but the absurdity of the example is too much to overlook.) My mother had contracted pneumonia again. She had had it many times before, and always before I had sought immediate medical attention to make her 'well' again.

Finally, on this day I had come to my senses enough to realize that in her advanced state of Alzheimer's she had no life, no enjoyment whatsoever, but was tormented constantly by countless physical woes and by the horror of having essentially lost the very things which made her human and which made her who she was as an individual. I had finally come to the very mature realization that we, the family and the medical community, needed to let her go to the mercy of death, something she had requested many times before she finally lost her ability to speak but her words then had been ignored as the ramblings of a 'crazy' woman.

I now knew that she had been serious. I had also finally realized that in order to die one must die OF something. That's easier said than done in our society where family and medical community alike conspire to cure all possible ailments and where science has in many cases rendered that possible. Not wanting our loved ones to suffer, we 'fix' everything that might allow them to die even when we can't fix the big overriding illness that is robbing them of life.

It's incredibly difficult to finally realize that death may involve some suffering and that, in our effort to relieve them of decades of unspeakable misery, we may need to permit them a few hours or days of temporary discomfort required to die - as apposed to lingering for countless years as some kind of medical experiment, a lifeless zombie riddled with all manner of tubes and connected to an array of machines which serve to force the body to remain technically alive long after anything resembling life remains.

On this day, I had taken up guard over her bed and had refused to allow treatment of her illness. Watching someone die is harder than you can know until you've done it. Watching someone slowly succumb to pneumonia is inexpressibly macabre. It's a little like being held prisoner in a Stephen King flick for a day.

Then in the last hour of my mother's life when it was known to all involved that she was dying and that we were not going to take any action to prevent it and when by that time it was probably too late even to turn things around if we wanted to, a nurse walked in and began taking my mother's blood pressure.

I was incensed by this ridiculous intrusion into what should have been a very private moment of my mother's death. When we are alive and fighting to stay that way, we typically appreciate the intervention of medicine. But there is a line, a line between living and dying. I don't know about you, but I don't think I want strangers messing with me in this way when I am dying. I think at such time I'd like to be held by a loved one not harassed by insensitive medical personnel looking for numbers to fill out forms.

I chased the woman out of the room asking angrily (once we reached the hall outside), "What difference does it make what her blood pressure is. She's DYING! It's not as if we're going to put her on medication to lower it if it's too high! So GET OUT and STAY OUT!"

I don't usually talk to people that way, but I was just beside myself with anger at the ludicrous and insensitive behavior of the staff. I think this is a prime example of the lunacy that can come of blindly following rules and filling out forms.

Edited to fix typo

This message was edited Oct 14, 2010 9:54 AM

Ruth,

I'm so sad to hear that you are not well - happy, of course, to know that you are doing well enough to be out of the hospital, but unhappy still to know that you are not well. And I can tell from your words that you are not well yet. I do hope that you will be back to your old self again very, very soon. I'm still worried about you and will keep you in my thoughts and prayers until you are truly well again.

Please take care of yourself. We need you. We need your guidance, your clear perspective on the subject of animals, and your friendship.

As to the raccoons - they were once the subject of this thread, weren't they - as expected, Heidi has culled the group down to herself and her kits. A few other kits try to sneak up to the area now and then, but Heidi is quick to let them know that they are unwelcome, growling and ultimately chasing them away. I've noticed that it's only kits that even attempt to return now. I figure this is probably because Heidi takes a harsher approach with adults who disobey her than with kits. Thus the adults all know to stay clear of the area now.

Do I ever have spoiled raccoons or what? A few days ago I committed the foolish offense of buying the cheaper cat food in an effort to cut expenses. The food had run out, and I had found a bag of Heidi's favorite Cat Chow on sale for $9.99, a price I rarely see for that one these days. Unfortunately, they only had the one bag left, and I didn't have the forethought to request a rain check, so, hoping to save a few bucks, I also grabbed a bag of the store brand. Even though Heidi had long since taught me not to buy the other store brands, we hadn't tried this one yet, and so I foolishly clung to the belief that this one might work. Not!

That day, the kits arrived a minute or so ahead of Heidi, as usual. Petey was 1st to put his head in the bowl of budget kibble, and from the instant he did so it was clear that something was wrong. The kits ate not just slowly but in a jerky manner. It just wasn't the smooth process I'd come to know. They ate like, "Ewe. This isn't right. What is this stuff?"

The raccoon routinely eat a variety of brands and flavors and show only subtle differences between them - like they actually prefer Surf and Turf over Seafood even though I would have guessed the opposite. They eat Friskies and 9 Lives and Purina. If necessary, they will also eat Cat Chow and some of the other brightly colored, fun shaped varieties that are clearly marketed at humans rather than animals. Although they don't like it as well, they will even eat Alley Cat. But they always, always, always hate the store brands, and this was a store brand.

It had been at least a year since I had tried to sneak in a bowl of budget, store brand food. I had forgotten just how much they dislike the stuff. They hate it really, and I was surprised at just how clear that message was.

The kits were still picking at their food looking more like human children being forced to eat vegetables than wildlife eating kibble. When Heidi arrived she took a hesitant bite or two of her food and then looked up at me and held my gaze for a minute or so before looking over at my bag and then back at me. At times like this she communicates so well with me now. Her unspoken words were clear. "Do you have anything else in there? I can't eat this stuff. What were you thinking, anyhow. Where's my usual food?"

The bag I use to carry the kibble each day was 1/2 full of Cat Chow before I put the budget stuff in. I reached down to the bottom and began scooping up handfuls of Cat Chow which I tossed to Heidi. As soon as the kit closest to her smelled the Cat Chow, she abandoned her own food to try to nudge in beside Heidi to eat the good stuff. Not wanting that, I tossed the kit a handful of Cat Chow so she would return to her own spot.

This in turn caused Petey to leave his dish heading for Heidi's spot, so I tossed some Cat Chow in his dish. The kit adjacent to him, immediately moved over to try to get her head in his dish which resulted in a fight. Thus I gave the 3rd and last kit some Cat Chow.

For a while everyone was eating normally again, normal pace and cadence, but there wasn't enough Cat Chow for a complete meal. Worse, after I dished up several handfuls the inevitable happened such that the top and bottom kibble began to merge in the bag yielding a mixture of Cat Chow and the store brand for subsequent handouts.

Heidi and the others ate normally until they had eaten all of the separate handfuls of Cat Chow. Even when Cat Chow remained but was mixed fairly evenly with the bad stuff, things went downhill fast. The process of trying to pick individual bits of Cat Chow out from a pile of this mixture proved too frustrating for them. (I noticed, btw, that doing so required eating with their mouth rather than their hands. It was clear that they were distinguishing between the 2 varieties by smell rather than sight even though the 2 were quite visually dissimilar.)

Within a minute, maybe 2 of reaching this point, the point where they were forced to pick Cat Chow bits out of a mix, things began to go downhill quickly. While Heidi was visibly repulsed by her dinner, it was the kits who actually gave up 1st. Petey walked off into the bushes and sat down. I've no idea what he was doing, waiting for the others maybe. He didn't return to eat.

Another kit turned around from her food, walked over to the fence, climbed it, and left without having consumed even a fraction of his/her normal meal. Moments later, Heidi gave up, too. She and the others left. They left a pile of food behind. None had eaten its normal quantity of food. All had decided they would prefer to spend the evening hunting for something decent than eat that stuff. Looking at the wasted kibble on the ground before me, I couldn't help but think how I had managed to accomplish the very opposite of savings.

The kibble they left behind was gone by the next morning. 2 kits who had tried to come to the buffet and had hidden out in the shrubs after being chased away by Heidi came back after Heidi and her family left. Perhaps because these other kits had been on their own for a while now, having been driven out from the buffet weeks earlier, they were more than happy to eat the store brand kibble. By the next morning all of the kibble Heidi's family had left behind was gone.

The next day I served Cat Chow at the buffet. Everyone was thrilled, and everything returned to normal. I've been feeding the good stuff since. I wonder though if the store brand really is 'that' inedible to Heidi and her kits or if in part their behavior was choreographed to manipulate the human. Had I been had? Don't know. I'm sure the store brand is less appetizing than the stuff they usually eat. I'm just not so sure that they are serious about their unwillingness to eat it at all. I decided to put it aside to be served only in the event the situation gets so bad that that is all we have.

A friend of mine had a similar experience when her son purchased a budget brand of cat food that neither their cats or dogs would eat.

I have found my cats to turn up their noses at some of the canned flavor choices set before them. Now I only give ! can (tuna size) divided into 3 portions on a rare occasion. It sure has made the multi flavor pack last longer and they also eat whatever flavor is there!

Sheri,

While pets may be picky at times, one usually expects wild raccoons to eat almost anything, but then I guess I have this bunch spoiled so that they have more the attitude of pampered pets than of wildlife.

Kitty is the one in our house who loves the canned food. I guess I spoiled her, too, in the early days before I lost my job. Back when I 1st met her and was trying to make friends I fed her lots of expensive canned cat food and even human grade tuna. Now she has an expectation of receiving canned food daily. She will actually sit there in front of her dish waiting for that dollop of canned food - even when no one is around to feed her. It's funny sometimes when I walk out into the hall and find her sitting there in front of her dish waiting all alone. I often wonder how long she has been waiting there.

I can't afford to give Kitty as much as she wants of the canned food now, so I divide the can (tuna can size) into 4 sections. 1 such section is my definition of a dollop. She gets 1 in the AM and 1 PM, so 1/2 can daily. That's not enough for her. She is very clear about that. Virtually ever day since I lost my job Kitty has complained that 1/2 can is not enough for her (even though she has unlimited dry food). Cocoa, thankfully, isn't that smitten with canned food. He's content to lick the can now and then and otherwise eat his dry food.

Kitty ate top brands when I was working. Now she eats, I think it's, 9 Lives canned food. Either that or Friskies. I tried a few cheaper brands, store brands, etc, but Kitty made it clear she did not approve of those brands. I didn't try to push the matter. After the pet food scandal a few yrs back, I'm always concerned about whether the food may contain unsafe ingredients, so when Kitty turned her nose up, I didn't argue with her. I just gave the rest of that food to Widget. Now I stick with the same food she always eats. She doesn't usually argue over different flavors, thank goodness.

Don't forget, cats have the reputation of being finicky eaters.

Today the neighbor was running some extremely noisy equipment in the last few minutes leading up to sunset. I had worked hard today and was tired. I knew Heidi and the kits weren't likely to come out in daylight, even semi-daylight, with all that noise, so rather than wait around (for nothing), I put the food out, 4 neat spots 1 for each of them to eat later tonight when they do show up, and came back inside.

I also tossed 4 biscuits back by the fence. They were canned biscuits, Grands, that had expired. Although the biscuits looked and smelled good, I felt it best to err on the side of caution. If I can't afford another can of biscuits, I can hardly afford a hospital bill. Today while doing some work in the kitchen and cooking up meals to set aside in little single serving containers, my latest idea of convenience food, I cooked the biscuits for the raccoons. Many of the raccoons actually like those canned biscuits anyhow.

I have no doubt, based on observing both dogs and cats with their kibble, that the store brands are much less appealing in taste; yet, as you say, wild raccoons are not typically thought to be epicurean, as witness the generations of them who live on dumpster offerings. But Heidi is all about good nutrition, even when it comes to choices among the special foods you offer, and no doubt works hard to instill this philosophy in her kits. And the store brands of kibble are simply nutritionally inferior, both in the amount of pure filler calories from grain and in the quality of the protein. Given this, though their behavior really does seem spoiled, it's probably a simple fact that Heidi can lead the family to find better nutrition in the forest than is offered by the store brand kibble. Kinda makes you sad for all the millions of dogs and cats who never see anything better than store brand, doesn't it? You can grow and survive on it, but thriving is tough; and you'll have to consume a whole lot more of it (and probably become overweight in the process) to get the nutrition you need.

Many thanks for the good wishes, Cheryl. I've been very lucky in that I've very rarely as an adult been injured or ill to a degree I can't ignore and go on in spite of it; so I guess I'm spoiled, because I'm not as accepting of current circumstances as I probably should be. The story about your mother's final hospitalization is terribly sad, not to mention painfully absurd; does make me feel a lot better about being frequently awakened for blood pressure checks.

Question:

As you may know, I've been acquiring free product samples. I figure it gives me small amounts of various food and supplies, including pet food and treats, to help out now. It also allows me to try out new products some of which I may like to buy when I'm working again - in another life. I only request samples I can use.

Recently, I bent that rule a bit by requesting a sample of high quality, organic rabbit food (no artificial ingredients). The package I received contains a nice quantity. There are several types of dried ingredient in it. There something that looks like alfalfa pellets, some other dried, ground, and formed item that is a light beige color, and pieces of some dried plant that is a light orange color. The package mentions "long fiber hay for digestion".

So here's my question. Any chance cats or raccoons might like this? (you know, for greens to augment their diets) How about turtles? (When I see one of my box turtles, I usually like to be a good hostess and offer him/her a snack.)

If you don't think any of my critter friends would like it, I plan to keep it until the next time I see the cotton tail in my backyard. Then I'll offer it to her. That should really test how palatable the stuff is since the wild bunny has access to fresh food (like my flowers). She usually shows up in the backyard garden in spring, when she loves to run around chopping down fresh flowers (argh! good thing she's so cute.)

I think the box turtle and the cottontail would appreciate the delicacy much more than the cats or raccoons.

Where are you learning about these free samples?

I had to laugh when the sample of rabbit food arrived. It was in a ziplock bag (with proper label and such) that was mailed inside a larger envelope. The pellets were free to move about the ziplock bag which in turn was free to move about the outer envelope. Thus it rattled a bit when jostled. I don't know if it was this motion/sound or perhaps the grassy, herbal aroma that wafted gently from the package, but somewhere along its route, the post office had felt it necessary to open the package. To sample the sample perhaps?

I tried it out on Widget, btw. He rolled a piece or two around his mouth and spit it out, his way of saying, "no thanks". Don't laugh, he eats all kinds of crazy things, so it was worth a try. That dog will fight you for asparagus, cabbage, collard greens, spinach, green beans, or broccoli. His favorite part of the cabbage (when eaten raw) is the thick, white, stem, the part I don't care for as much, so we make a good pair when eating raw cabbage, me enjoying the green portions and him the thick, white stems.

Thanks, Sheri,

www.mySavings.com is my favorite site for this. Some sites out there are trying to trick you into buying something. This one isn't. Also I find this one much better organized (to save me time) than others. Once on the site, click on "Free Samples". Samples are arranged by catagory which makes it much easier to find the ones of interest to you.

For each sample you are sent to the manufacturers web page. Most request name, address, and email. It's best to take a moment to create a new email address to use just for sampling/coupons before you begin. In general, I've not received spam from the companies I've found on mySavings, esp since I stick mainly to well known brands; however, it's a good idea to use a separate email address for this just to be sure you don't end up getting spam in your regular inbox.

On mySavings, after you go through initially and apply for everything of interest, you can just check back every day or so and click on "New Samples" to see items listed over the last few days. I do that every few days. It takes maybe 5min to check and apply.

Other good sample sources (although these are also generally listed on mySavings) are WalMart.com (check In Stores Now then Samples) and Target.

Here is a link to the thread I started when I 1st started to try out sampling. (Originally, I was actually looking for pet food coupons when I found the samples.). The thread and my study are winding down now, and I've stopped reporting samples received, but the info is still there about sites that did and did not work for me, good info for someone starting out: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1090234/

Bottom line, you will not get rich sampling, but getting little gifts in the mail this way makes that trip to the mail box a lot more interesting. For a while there I was getting 1 to 3 items daily. Lately, I've largely run out of new samples to try, so I only get things on rare occasion now.