Spellboundgem and Her Traveling Zoo’s Tail

07/17/2024

Added a new addition to our zoo!

06/18/2024

Poke!

Gen Z has discovered the Poke button, and they are loving it! Find your audience on Facebook today.

06/18/2024

It pays to be resourceful!

I picked up this free booster and a couple of boxes of books from off the side of the road sometime last fall.

I didn't look at the date on the booster, I didn't care because it wasn't going to be used for a kid, it was going to be used for my cats during road trips and in the house so they're used to having it as a bed between road trips.

I hoped I would find the perfect box to fit around the booster's arm rests and over the top of it.

Any box with handles from Costco makes a great cat box, I'll post more I've made in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Fast forward to a couple months ago and I got this Lysol bleach box from Costco.

At first I used the box to contain some of my child's toys, then one day I looked at it and decided I'd see if it fits over the booster since I've been wanting a box for it.

The box fit perfectly!

The box is snug, so it can't go anywhere!

There are handle holes right by the arm rests so when traveling I can put the seat belt through them and secure it in my car!

It really does pay to be resourceful, because this box is everything I needed it to be and more!

Pictured is the booster, the Lysol box, and Thunder showing off how well it works.

05/09/2024

I love my 5 adorable kitties 🥰

Love, Loki, Thunder, and Mjölnir are all piled in a bed box on the top shelf.
Calipso is enjoying her own bed box.

Bed boxes courtesy of Costco and some blankets that I had lying around.

12/22/2023

Meet Captain Jumping Jack Skellington. This is a jumping spider I found in my room a couple months ago when it was starting to get cold. I just decorated their new bigger enclosure with snow, a snowman ☃️, and some tiny trees 🌲. The enclosure is an old plastic Animal Cracker jar from Costco. 🕷 🫙

I really love jumping spiders now and was so thrilled to find this one. Phoenix calls spiders friends now, all spiders are friends! 😊 🕷

Total count now:
Zoo keeper(s): 2
Cat(s): 5
Dog(s): 1
Spider(s): 1

09/17/2023

April 2023 to September 2023. Mjölnir Stormbreaker is about 7 months old now.

09/13/2023

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. So much has happened...here's some of the things that happened to the zoo.

I lost Thor on March 19th 2023 to someone hitting him right in front of where we live in broad daylight at like 11am. I still can't believe he's really gone and it's been almost 6 months since I lost him. The way it happened so fast without warning and I couldn't even protect him just destroys me, he was one of the best cats I have ever had.

I adopted 3 kittens in honor of Thor.
In early April I adopted a Maine C**n that I named Mjölnir Stormbreaker, she was super tiny and I assume around 4-6 weeks old
In late June I adopted two sisters that I named Love and Thunder, I assume they were 6-8 weeks old because they were bigger than mjolnir when I got her, but not as big as Mjölnir when I got them and she was around 4-5 months old when I adopted them.

Mjölnir is very picky, as far as humans go she really only likes me and only tolerates Phoenix, but loves all the other zoo members.

Love is the same way as Mjölnir, most of the time, sometimes she loves anyone who will give her attention.

Thunder is definitely a reincarnation of Thor. Thor was an attention w***e and got the catchphrase/nickname 'Attention Thor' because of it. Thunder now has her own catch phrase too. Thunder likes to steal other cats' thunder if they're getting pets.

Thunder absolutely loves Phoenix and will let Phoenix carry her around everywhere, is adorable!

Everything was going great for my zoo from the end of June when we got Love and Thunder, and less than 2 weeks later my life was upside again with Calipso missing on July 7th and me fearing the absolute worst because she's 12 years old and I already lost Thor when he got hit in March.

I searched everywhere for Calipso, I asked neighbors about her, I asked local vets, I called the shelter, I updated her microchip info and informed the microchip company that she was missing, and I made posts everywhere about her being missing.

On August 10th I got a call from the local shelter and they said they had found Calipso.

On August 14th I was able to get her. She was found almost 2 miles away from home limping/dragging a paw and covered in road rash. They did xrays on her and she miraculously didn't have any fractures or dislocations despite her obviously being hit by a car.

On August 11th I took her to the vet, she weighed 11 pounds and the vet said she could have suffered more internal damages to her liver and kidneys because of being missing for 5 weeks in the heat and having the injuries she has, as well as the weight loss (she's a 20ish pound cat normally).

On September 5th I took Calipso in for a recheck and she was weighing almost 13 pounds, which they were super happy with and didn't need to do more blood work, but they're still suggesting I get her leg amputated because of the significant nerve damage.

The amputation will cost 💲1400, which I have to save up and probably do some fund raising for since that is a lot of money.

It's now September 12th and I have seen her put a little bit of weight on her paw while walking, which gives me hope! I've been massaging her leg and shoulder, hoping that'll help her heal quicker. I'm hoping she heals up and doesn't need the amputation, time will tell and I'll need time to save anyway.

08/07/2022

Today I have quite the tail to tell!
This morning I was going for a walk on a local trail with my child and one of my grandma's.
While walking I made the comment we had been the way we started going before so we should go the other way and we did.
After awhile we were walking amongst trees and I thought I heard a faint meow, so we stopped then I heard more, so I climbed up the dirt hill by the trail and looked around and found 2 kittens then suddenly I was ambushed by 4 more kittens.
With 6 kittens safely bunched up into my shirt I slid down the dirt hill to my grandma and child.
We decided that we should head back to the cars and get the kittens home.
On our walk back to the cars one of the kittens escaped and ran for the river on the other side of the trail, my grandma chased after it and down the hill to the river to get it, then I heard a 7th kitten!
As the 7th kitten was trying to approach the stroller a bicyclist went zipping by scaring it, but it was determined to not get left behind. At the same time the escaped kitten came back on its own to the stroller.
My grandma and I put all 7 kittens in a big baby blanket and carried it on the stroller hoping not to lose another kitten.
We got all the kittens safely to the cars and in tote with the blanket.
I stopped at the store for kitten food on the way home.
Once home I fixed a broken bunny cage and put the kittens in it.
The kittens are all adjusting well and love the attention, which leads me to believe someone dumped them near where I found them.
I'm glad I went for a walk today!

10/29/2021

Finally put the second strand of LED lights up, only reason I waited so long was because I just wasn't sure where to put it. Originally I wanted to have it line the floors so it could light up the floor so I could still see where I need to go when Phoenix is asleep, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it wouldn't work like how I had envisioned it. After weeks of trying to figure out the best spot I chose above my bed. I'm still very glad I chose these lights over getting light fixtures for my trailer, they're controlled with a remote and an app.