Do I actually see with my very own eyes a man who's not heard of a Jellicle cat?

About a year ago an unknown black cat started wandering through our garden. It was small and unkempt and its presence seemed to put our cats on edge. They would constantly have their back up and their ears down, skulking around the garden with their bodies pressed to the ground. 

As we live in the country and on a farm with a huge field we have already had a few run-ins with foxes, (in which one of our cats had its tail and chin torn off by a fox and lived to tell the tale) we like to try and get our cats in at night. So around April the cat started showing up in what we call 'the cat cupboard', where the cat flap is and running as soon as we tried to even get close to it.
This kept happening for a month or so, until we kept finding it in the living room. It was clear it was terrified, appearing to have little to no contact with humans for a long time we came to the conclusion it was a stray but perhaps was attracted to our house as we have 5 cats.Mum started putting food in the cat cupboard and eventually it started sleeping in there till the morning, then it would leave. This was no Aristocat but there was something about him that made us all fall in love with him and so when he started making a home we were over the moon.

Hobie, such a gorgeous cat and such an important part of our family.

It's taken him a while to stop being jumpy and to get used to fuss but he's gone from a shy little cat with sticky, matted fur to a confident boy who loves the fuss and his 4 brothers and his sister love him. He prances around the house like he owns the place and loves to have fun. When we had him blood tested, where the fur was shaved his skin was covered in scars, so I hate to think what happened in his life but now he's with a family that loves him more than anything and has a happy home full of life and food, which he never seems to want to stop eating. He's the kindest, gentlest stray I've ever seen in my life and the most grateful cat too.

His name is as perfect as he is because he's our little Hobo.

One slow step for Sloth kind

One of the things that not only do I obsess over but I love and am extremely passionate about is Sloths. I have done a lot of research about these beautiful creatures and I thought I'd share a little bit of the information that I've gathered, which you may or may not know about these lovely animals.

Sloths are slow moving mammals that live in the trees of the rain forests. There are two species of Sloths,  Choloepus hoffmani, also known as two-toed Sloth and Bradypus variegates, also known as the three-toed Sloth. 

Fun Fact: When you see a greenish coloring on a Sloth, it isn't their real color, it comes from the algae on the trees.

Three-toed Sloth.

Fun fact: Did you know that Sloths go to the toilet once a week? They climb down from their branch (incredibly slowly of course), wrap their arms around a tree and perform a (slow) little dance by wiggling from side to side. 


There are a differences between the two toed and three toed sloth other than the number of toes. The three-toed Sloths are more well known for their color, with grey and brown hair and striped bands across the eyes like a mask whereas the two-toed Sloth has a darker blonde to a brown body and a lighter face with brown rings around their eyes.
For Mr two-toes the area around the nose is hairless and longer than its cousins who has a shorter nose. Mr three-toes has arms that are nearly twice as long as his legs, unlike the two-toed who's arms and legs are the same length.Unlike the two-toes, the three-toes have a tail no bigger than 4 inches and also have 9 vertebrate which allows them to turn their head nearly 270 degrees. This allows them to see predators from a much greater scale.

Fun fact: Did you know that two-toed Sloths actually have three toes, however they do have two fingers but they are more commonly known as two-toed, rather than two-fingered. 

Unfortunately, when baby Sloths fall out of trees more often than not, the mother will abandon it. On the forest floor it is dangerous for a Sloth, especially as it is so slow. In the trees they do have more advantage due to their main predators residing on the forest floor. Also when Sloth babies have something wrong such as they cannot cling to trees and will keep falling off, the mother will sense this and abandon it. 
These poor babies are left to die, however there are sanctuaries to help rehabilitate and rescue them. They help develop their survival skills, which some can be lacking in due to no or little time with their mothers. They also provide a place for Sloths that have lost 
their homes due to deforestation. 

Sanctuaries like the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica provide homes for these Sloths. Their website is packed with facts and information collected from 1 on 1 study and work with Sloths. 
Please check out their website HERE to see what amazing voluntary work these people are doing and learn more about Sloths. If you can, please try and donate to the sanctuary, even giving a little will go along way, its a great cause and goes to saving these gorgeous animals and helping get them back in the wild where they belong.