Mercer County Library Blog

September is Happy Cat Month. Happy Cat Month was started by the nonprofit CATalyst Council to bring awareness to the welfare of cats. It can be hard work to understand your cat’s wants and needs…I’m still figuring it out with my own cat! I adopted my cat Svetlana when she was 7 years old. She is now almost 14 and is as playful as ever. Providing your cat with enough mental stimulation is one of the most important aspects of taking care of your cat. I have tried to get my cat interested in all sorts of toys over the years…from cat houses to ball tracks, but some days her favorite toy is a simple ping pong ball. I think she, like most cats, lose interest rather quickly, so it is important to introduce new toys and games often. The American Animal Hospital Association has a list of DIY Enrichment games that you can make at home and enjoy with your cat, like homemade feather toys and a toilet paper roll puzzle. Another important part of a cat’s health is hydration. A lot of cats do not ...

I’m here to give you permission to do something without going all in, buying all the gear, and making it your whole “thing.” For me, that’s birds. I’m not a “birder.” I don’t keep a life list, I don’t have hard-core binoculars, and I seldom go out before dawn to find birds. I just enjoy birds when I notice them, and I notice them a lot. I have a feeder on my balcony, visible from my kitchen window, where I’m regularly visited by downy and hairy woodpeckers (I’ve learned to tell the difference), catbirds, juncos, Carolina wrens (my favorites, for their beautiful songs and their jaunty tail twitches), cardinals, blue jays, house finches, and occasionally a red-bellied woodpecker. I’m often eating my breakfast when the starlings come to eat theirs. And when my breakfast is granola with lots of nuts and seeds, I imagine I’m sharing breakfast with the birds – mine with yogurt, theirs with suet. Jenny Odell, artist and author of Saving Time and How To Do Nothing , is much more of a birdw...

Bug boy. That’s what we’ve called James, my oldest son who is now 17, since he was little. He has always been fascinated by bugs of all kinds, and spiders have been a favorite of his. We’ve learned over the years that he’s a little unusual in this regard. There are a lot of people out there who really don’t like spiders! I get it – they have lots of little legs and lots of eyes and creep around and some can even bite you. But, James has helped me grow fond of them and I truly believe that the more people learn about these fascinating little creatures, the more they’ll grow to love them – or at least not freak out at the sight of them.   Thanks to James, there are four pet spiders in our home – a pink toed tarantula and 3 wolf spiders. Two of the wolf spiders he has raised from slings.  “Sling” or “spiderling” is what a baby spider is called.  Doesn’t that make them seem a little bit cuter already??  It turns out spiders are pretty easy pets.  They’re not messy a...

As a child, reading was mainly for school - some of those books were either a hit or a miss. But when given the chance to decide on a book for oneself, it was marvelous and it just had to be about horses. The series that ended up being the favorite was Pony Pals by Jeanne Betancourt. The characters bond over their love for ponies and create their own little group called Pony Pals - hence the title. Together they go on trail rides and explore their little town. Within each book, a problem presents itself and together the Pony Pals work to help each other solve it. The problems that come up in the series are, to a child, maybe some of the hardest kinds of problems to deal with, such as: What do you do when a pony is sick? Is it a simple dietary issue or sprained ankle? Or just an upset stomach? A Pony in Trouble by Jeanne Betancourt Pam's father is a veterinarian, so she is used to being around sick animals. But when her own pony gets sick, Pam needs her Pony Pals more ...

Would you like a furry friend or scaly creature to be part of your home? Adopting a pet is a good way as it can save an animal’s life while also enhancing your own health and wellbeing. Most of the pets in my life were strays or received from a household that needed to rehome a cat, hamster, gerbil, or guinea pig. I’ve adopted twice; once through a shelter and once through a pet rescue. Both of these sources can be found through basic Internet searches or using specific search engines. One example of a specific search engine is Petfinder.com . Here you can bring up a list of places that have animals available for adoption and use filters such as pet type, size, age, and location to further narrow your results. This site also provides a list of individual adoption links, so if you have a specific shelter or rescue in mind, you can look for it there. While shelters and rescues have a few differences, they have many similarities. In my experiences, both the shelter and rescue requir...