{"id":6379,"date":"2012-07-14T06:50:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T10:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=6379"},"modified":"2012-07-13T15:09:44","modified_gmt":"2012-07-13T19:09:44","slug":"geo-catting-anyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/geo-catting-anyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Geo-Catting Anyone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My oldest son, Chris, came to visit Dan and I last month and introduced us to the world of \u201cgeocaching.\u201d It apparently has been around for years, but since I live in a cat induced bubble, it was new to me. For those of you that also may have no clue what geocaching is, it is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a GPS receiver or mobile device to seek hidden containers of various sizes, called “geocaches\u201d anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. Geocaches are currently placed in over 200 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica and the International Space Station. After more than 12 years of activity there are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, we had the same concept, only we called it \u201chide the object\u201c (such as a broken crayon) and told someone they were getting \u201chotter or colder\u201d as they got closer or further from it. While that was fun in our day,\u00a0 I must admit that this new method is also a really cool way to have fun. You actually combine technology with physical activity, your mind, and the great outdoors. Chris, Dan and I drove to six different locations, of which we were able to locate four of the caches. One of them appeared to be lost or damaged (according to the Geocache website notes) and one was so extremely difficult to locate, that has been found by only a few people. One cache was found in a tree, another in a fake electrical plate on a lamp post, one in a\u00a0 fake electric box, and one under a stairwell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After we got home from our adventure, I realized I had been geocaching as an adult all along, only it was \u201cgeo-catting.\u201d There are very few times that I go anywhere or do anything, that somehow a cat is not involved. If you will recall, my trip to PA last month to visit my brother involved them adopting a cat, me sitting next to a cat on the plane ride home, and a book I bought with an unexpected story line about a cat rescue.<\/p>\n

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The cat (Abbey) my brother adopted at a PetSmart adoption drive.<\/p><\/div>\n

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You don\u2019t need a special uniform to Geo-cat, but this is what tends to happen to people who get involved with professional Geo-catters, such as myself. This family portrait was taken the year before my brother adopted Abbey. Clockwise, starting far left, my sister-in-law, Kathy; my brother, Dave; me; my niece, Allison; my niece Kayla, and my nephew, Alex.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I was married many decades ago, my ex and I were visiting his parents in Florida who lived in a \u201cno-pet\u201d senior community. I was terribly homesick and out of nowhere a tiny black cat appeared. The cat stayed the whole time we visited, and after we left, so did the cat. Last summer when we went to Sea World in Orlando, we found a cat on the property, and the other weekend Dan and I went to Flamingo Gardens to enjoy the day and we saw three cats, one of which actually jumped up on the bench I was sitting on and curled up next to me for a nap. Oh, and surprise, surprise \u2013 these cats were all part of a successful TNR program and were living quite happily and peacefully amongst the guests.<\/p>\n

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We found this sweet little kitty while at Sea World, Orlando. Staff members take care of her and she is very happy!<\/p><\/div>\n

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This beautiful Siamese mix at Flamingo Gardens took a brief cat nap with me.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I commend Flamingo Gardens for taking care of its outdoor cat community - you will note that the left tip of this cat's ear was clipped - a sign that this cat was sterilized and part of a well-managed TNR program.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have geo-catted numerous cats in our yard, and of course, throughout the course of my life, since cats tend to find me, several geo-stray cats became permanent household members with me such as Meagan, Tosha, Kit, and\u00a0 Shami. I also remember a tiny little white and orange kitten I found around the holidays. This was of course right around after I had found Kit in my driveway. I had STRICT marching orders from my ex\u2026. No more cats allowed. Fate intervened \u2013 I put an ad in the paper about the kitten and received a phone call from a father whose young seven year old daughter had lost a kitten and was heartbroken. He asked if he could adopt this kitten as a surprise Christmas gift for her, which of course I said yes.<\/p>\n

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This calico that we nicknamed "Callie" was one of the first neighborhood cats that would visit our yard on a regular basis.<\/p><\/div>\n

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We have nicknamed this neighborhood bruiser, "Major."<\/p><\/div>\n

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What the heck? Hey, that's not a cat! No cheating guys... this is just one of the neighborhood possums stopping by for a visit!<\/p><\/div>\n

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This cool cat lounging in our yard has been nicknamed "Tom Cat."<\/p><\/div>\n

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Eureka!! My patience has paid off... I have spotted one of those elusive geo-cats in my own yard! Oh, wait a minute, it's just Zee... one of my own cats that actually lets me hold them while they are outside without squirming to get away!<\/p><\/div>\n

How about you, have any of you been geo-catting lately, or, like me, your whole life?<\/p>\n

Please take a moment to vote for Zee & Zoey in the DogTime Pettie Awards – we are nominated for “Best Designed Blog” and “Best Blog Post” for our interview with Steve Dale on pedigree cat breeding. You can vote once a day up to July 31st, and winning blogs will get $1000 donated to the rescue or shelter of their choice! We have picked a local organization called Abandoned Pet Rescue where we got several of our dogs throughout the years.Click here to vote<\/span>.<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My oldest son, Chris, came to visit Dan and I last month and introduced us to the world of \u201cgeocaching.\u201d It apparently has been around for years, but since I live in a cat induced bubble, it was new to me. For those of you that also may have no clue what geocaching is, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365],"tags":[194,1265,1276,392],"class_list":["post-6379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-humor","tag-adventure","tag-cats","tag-feline-behavior","tag-geocaching"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Zee-and-Deb.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6379"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6472,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6379\/revisions\/6472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}