As promised, I would like to talk to you about pet health insurance. I know there are a lot of companies out there to choose from and that is completely your option. I’m not well versed on who all is out there or what services/cost they may provide. I’m just going to let you in on my experience.

When I adopted George from the Rockingham/Harrisonburg SPCA, the system they used to accept payment asked if you would be interested in a pet policy for blah, blah – I think it was around $30- 35 dollars and it was through a company that I knew, but did not know they had pet insurance: MetLife.

It sounded like a good deal – and I now had an unknown health system in my house, I decided to go for it. So I merrily popped along for a year, submitting claims and getting paid back, until I started getting notices that his policy was almost up. At that time I was getting everything my munchkin needed, including all medications (including flea/tick), health care at 80% reimbursement – that included both emergency/issue care AND routine, and even prescription food!

*Now, I do need to declare that with the prescription food you do need to order it from your veterinarian – and get the invoice. They do not accept invoices/shipping statements from Chewy.com or the like.

**Note: You do need to pay out of pocket or use a credit card like CareCredit, submit for reimbursement, and wait about 15 days for the claim to process and BOOP you have your reimbursement dropped into your checking account you use to pay your bill every month.

Well, while my mom was in the chiropractor’s office one Saturday, I waited in the car and called MetLife. The very nice representative said we could renew at the current rate of blah, blah or we could pick a different plan. So I asked what the most common plan was for a household with a feline. She explained to me that the most common, and probably the best, plan was with a $100 deductible with 100% reimbursement. I was floored! So, all I have to do is spend $100 bucks (roughly what I pay for his prescription diet for one month – okay maybe it’s around $75), seek reimbursement, hit that 100 mark and after that everything is covered at 100%??

This option is a little more expensive, I think I pay around $56 dollars a month, but it has already payed for itself! Georgie had a visit to the Emergency Vet on Sunday April 30th that cost just under $1,200 – which my mom (bless her) put on her CareCredit Card. Submitted for reimbursement on Tuesday May 2nd (and I’ll update when we get the reimbursement deposit). And you know what? That entire $1,200 will be placed in my checking account and I can write my mom a check.

Yes, you have to pay upfront. Yes, you do need to be submitting claims. But you know what, the value I’m getting from this and being able to get paid back for food (which you have to buy anyways) and knowing George is getting the care he needs – when he needs it – is a huge weight off my mind. They even have an app where you can submit claims or just check into your file, contact, watch the progress of your claim, change you method of payment and reimbursement – tons of options.

So if you happen to be in the market for insurance, or maybe you always dismissed the idea. Think about it. You may find it beneficial. I’m in my second year with MetLife and I wish I had known about them way before this. With all the munchkins I have had – many of whom developed cancer (not cheap!) – it would have been a blessing. I am a very happy customer.

**I am not being paid for this or getting any benefit – except if I can help someone else out. This is my opinion – based on my experience.

I did not know this before this year – May being home of Mother’s Day (in the United States) and Memorial Day (usually on or around my birthday ) – but it is also Global Pet Adoption Month!

Those of us that have adopted (or rescued) a pet knows that they bring just as much joy to your life than a purebred that cost thousands of dollars.  If not more since you actually saved a life.

***This post is going to be mostly about me and my experiences with rescue and adoption.  If you’re not interested, that’s okay, feel free to skip ahead, but please take a look at the last paragraph or so.

I don’t remember my childhood overly well, but ever since I was a teenager all of my pets have been rescues or adopted.

It started with Cyra when I was a teenager and working at my first job – a zookeeper!  She was found by the maintenance team on zoo property (that was right next to a busy highway).  After searching for the mother for several hours they concluded the mother may have been run over looking for food.  So they placed the barely two week old kittens into a box and headed for the private keeper area where all the keepers went crazy!  The maintenance men were like, “We’re at a zoo and you go crazy over kittens!” I was only able to take one of the four or five munchkins, and I was encouraged to take her – so I did and she was so wonderful!

Even while Cyra was still with me and we had moved so I could go to college, there was a beautiful stray wandering around our apartment complex.  We would set food out for him and he would come around regularly.  We got to the point where he would let us pick him up!  So after some heavy discussions with the roomies, we agreed to bring him in.  So one day when he came around for dinner, we just picked him up and carried him into the house!  Done.  We named him Loki after the Norse god of mischief – NEVER do this!  He really lived up to the name!  Stink-pot!

Okay, so now I have Cyra and Loki.  And we get two more stray coming around for food.  A bit shabby and their long fur matted in spots – they were sisters.  They came around for a long time but one was very skittish, the other a bit more affectionate.  One day they come around and it is obvious that the skittish one was pregnant!  Now we don’t know what to do.  We don’t want to stress her and even if you take one step in her direction, she takes off – so trying to catch her is out of the question.  Now we just hope for the best. 

Easter Sunday 2008, I was woken up to kids knocking on the door.  There was a pile of kittens in front of our door!  Not knowing if she abandoned them, we quickly brought them inside.  Off to PetsMart I go to get some milk replacement – known as KMR.  Okay, to make a very long story short, we had three kittens and we found a forth just behind the fence in the neighbor’s property.  You should have seen his face when we showed up asking if we could check his back yard for kittens!  Okay, kittens raised to 8 weeks of age and I adopt out three of the kittens, we kept one tuxie who we named Beau. 

**Side story – we eventually rescued Mom kitty and Aunt kitty!  And my third roommate took them.  When I moved in 2015 to Virginia, I lost touch with them.

Beau stayed with me through the move – Cyra and Loki sadly leaving my side prior to this time – and all the way until 2021 when he was put to sleep after a terrible, but thankfully quick, fight with stomach cancer.

I am devastated by his loss, a smidge more so with him because I didn’t have other fuzzies at home to comfort me and partly because we were so close and bonded.

It rolls around to April 2022, roughly 8 months after Beau’s departing, and I feel I am ready to get another cat.  I had heard of a 12-year-old orange tabby in desperate need of a good home.  So I keep checking the shelter website – almost daily – to see if he had come up for adoption.  Then I hear he wasn’t going to be put up for adoption, so I began looking for someone else.  Then while searching the same SPCA website I found him!  Another tuxie male – this one named George.  Now this shelter was 2 hours away!  No matter, I made an appointment to do a meet and greet (my mom went with me).  They take us back and introduce us and it was wonderful.  He was cute, a little shy and loved belly rubs!!  My mom goes, ”Ï know you want him.” And that was that.  I paid a whopping $50 (plus tax) for a loving companion.  I also got great pet insurance! But that can be in another post.

George and I just celebrated our 1 year adoptaversary last month.  He has really opened up and is starting to explore more than the second floor.  Personally, I didn’t care for the name but when I got him home and he responded to it, I really didn’t want to change it – so I call him Georgie.

My point is, you can get a great pet that doesn’t have to cost you tons of money.  They still bring you joy.  And if you insist on a purebred STILL check your local shelters, call around.  When I worked at my local SPCA in Florida we got in 3 or 4 purebred husky puppies.  Who knows if they had papers – and you really shouldn’t care!  Don’t pay a breeder, who is just looking for money, to bring more lives into this world when so many need rescuing.  Many are being euthanized just because the shelter doesn’t have any room – or they have been there too long.  This is wrong and it breaks my heart.  If I had the money I would set up a rescue myself.  I have no problem putting money where my mouth is.

Please, I implore you, at least look around, call around and see if you can save a life.  They need you more than the breeders do.

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

– A.A. Milne

Namaste, God Bless, or until next time said in the way of your preference

Nothing goes together quite like Cadbury and Easter. I still remember the commercials growing up, as well as the current crop showing bunny contenders, all wearing their ears. Also, I remember knowing that if I rooted around my basket, I would find a crème filled egg. One that had sunk to the bottom from being solid sweetness – none of that hollow crap if you please!

Over the years, I let them (and the whole tradition of Easter) drop from my main consciousness. Then in 2003, Easter came back into my life with special meaning; my little Beau was brought into my life where he would continue to shine beautiful light until his passing in 2021.

Then 2023 came along! And what should grace my Facebook feed? None other than this year’s Spokes Bunny for the godfather of Easter chocolate, Cadbury. If you haven’t heard yet, it is a one-eyed orange tabby from Idaho, named “Crash”.

Crash sustained injuries from being hit by a car that included a broken leg and jaw and the loss of his eye, plus a new name! But nothing can keep a good kitty down, and Crash charmed his way into becoming the resident shelter cat, greeting patrons and even performing a few tricks like the classic “high five”.

Not only will Cadbury be featuring Crash in a commercial but donated $20,000 to the ASPCA to continue their work and promote saving lives through adoption. This is on top of Crash’s winnings of $5,000 for himself and $5,000 for the charity of his choice.

That did it! Cadbury is back in my life with renewed enthusiasm and devotion! I made sure to pick up an array of Cadbury goodies with my weekly grocery haul. And you know what? Next week looks pretty good too!

On a side note, I adopted another kitty last year named George. So his 1 year adopt-iversy is coming up, and that will be, you guessed it – Easter Sunday. Amazing when these things happen.

UPDATE:

The American owner of Cadbury is Hershey’s, so I took my new love to their customer service department. I was hoping for a comment here but I got a fantastic email:

Kudos Hershey’s!

I know! I was supposed to post this yesterday but as you can guess, life got in the way!!

Hello and welcome to one of the most fun days in the calendar year! Yes, that double meaning holiday that brings joy to math nerds and foodies the world over. But guess what? You don’t have to limit your love of π (or pie) to just one day! More on that a little later.

The standard reasoning for choosing today, March 14th, for Pi Day is because the beginning of π is 3.14. But it wasn’t until 1988 that someone thought about it long enough to make the connection and a large-scale celebration was in order. It was California’s Exploratorium physicist Larry Shaw who nabs the honor. But it wasn’t until March 2009 that The House of Representatives agreed to officially designate March 14th as National Pi Day.

This all led Google to do their infamous Doodle and in March of 2014 – it was celebrated as “Pi Month”, allowing the March 14th of 2015 to become “Super Pi Day”! Then to add to the fun, if you use the American style of writing the date then 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 the date and time together represented the first ten digits of π.

According to Wikipedia “Pi Day has been observed in many ways, including eating pie, throwing pies and discussing the significance of the number π, due to a pun based on the words “pi” and “pie” being homophones in English ( /paɪ/), and the coincidental circular shape of many pies. Many pizza and pie restaurants offer discounts, deals, and free products on Pi Day.”

It continues: “The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has often mailed its application decision letters to prospective students for delivery on Pi Day. Starting in 2012, MIT has announced it will post those decisions (privately) online on Pi Day at exactly 6:28 pm, which they have called “Tau Time”, to honor the rival numbers pi and tau equally. In 2015, the regular decisions were put online at 9:26 am, following that year’s “pi minute”,^[26] and in 2020, regular decisions were released at 1:59 pm, making the first six digits of pi.” This is very clever indeed, although I feel stupid that I had to look up what the tau number was.

Here’s what I found out: 2π, also known by the Greek letter tau (𝜏) is a common multiple in mathematics. Some even say it is a more “fundamental” constant than π itself. All of this led to June 28th becoming “Two Pi Day” or “Tau Day” and the “jokingly suggest eating “twice the pie” “. Okay let’s not joke about this. I’m all for eating as much pie as I can handle!!

I love Pi Day because it is also Albert Einstein‘s birthday.

Remember when I said earlier that you can celebrate on other days? Well, here’s a list:

• Pi Approximation Day is (using the Western Style of writing the date) celebrated on July 22nd. This is because the fraction  ²²⁄₇ is accurate to two decimal places.
• I already told you about “Two Pi Day” or “Tau Day” (June 28th)
• And there is a second Pi Approximation Day! This one is celebrated on the 314th day of the year – November 10th

So there you have it – reasons to eat pie (or any other circular food) and all the days (not enough in my opinion) where you can sit back, rub your belly and say “That was so worth it!”

Well, well. It appears that March has National Ranch Day – who knew? My question, and it may be silly, but what kind of ranch?

This kind?

Or this kind? (The actual Hidden Valley Ranch!)

Call me crazy, but I have never been a big fan of the Ranch Dressing and seasoning craze that has taken over the U.S. Some of my friends even use it on their chicken nuggets! This concept just seems foreign to me. But I do love to watch YouTube cooking videos and I see a ton of people like Jessica O’Donohue (one of my favorites – along with Mandy In The Making), who absolutely love the stuff and will even add it to things that don’t call for ranch!! I suppose some may consider me crazy because I do the same with hot sauce (well, sometimes). But I do enjoy their crazy videos and their even crazier relationships with their husbands, “Bunkey” and Steven, respectively.

The O’Donohue’s with Daisy Mae

Mandy & Steven

If you do like ranch, just take a quick journey down Google Lane and you won’t be disappointed; dressings, seasoning packets and recipes galore! Or better yet, go to the King of Ranch, the Hidden Valley website, where not only can you find recipes – you can share them, too.

Ranch dressing has been the best selling salad dressing in the United States sine 1992 – when it beat out Italian.

The salad dressing was invented in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s by a man named Steven Hensen while he was working in the Alaskan bush as a plumbing contractor. He wanted to keep his workers happy so he invented the dressing. But it wasn’t until 1956/1957 that it really took off – being produced at his personal ranch; Hidden Valley Ranch in San Marcos Pass, California. Hensen would make the dressing for friends at functions and it was always well received. But it wasn’t until he put a batch together for his friend and owner of the Cold Spring Tavern, Audrey Ovington, that he hit it big and she became his first commercial account.

Hensen stayed with the operation until 1972 when it was bought by Clorox (of all companies!) for $8 million. Since then the name and production has changed hands numerous times as well as being cloned by entities like Kroger, Ken’s, Kraft, Litehouse, Marie’s, Newman’s Own, and Wish-Bone.

If you’re interested in a more in-depth history of Hidden Valley Ranch, check out Wikipedia and the Hidden Valley website.