Grammy Camp - Catty Shack

Lions and tigers and leopards, oh my! 

I like to think of myself as being in touch.  I don't know how I missed it, but missed it I did.  I'm talking about Catty Shack Wildlife Sanctuary in Jacksonville, not far from Amelia Island, Florida. It's been around for over 25 years and I only recently found out about it!

According to our tour guide, the tour was included in the price of entry, there are currently 45 animals living there. Sadly, the animals come from situations where they have been mistreated, illegally owned or in too small cages. Whatever the reason, once a cat enters this happy
place, it is welcomed and cared for there the rest of its life.

 
 
 

Open to the public on the weekends, we took granddaughter Ava on a Sunday afternoon in July during her stay at our house aka Grammy Camp.  Man alive, was it ever hot for us, but not for those cats. We arrived to find mostly tigers, also lions, cougars, leopards and even arctic foxes, almost all asleep in their huge wire fence enclosures. That was until about 2 pm when all the cats came alive, seemingly for no particular reason. Then in a carefully choreographed dance of unlocking and opening gates, the cats knew the drill, and momentarily wandered into their holding spaces. It was then we saw the head keeper driving around in his jeep, placing treats for them on cement slabs inside their cages. The huge kitties instinctively understood it was time for their snacks and when directed back into their homes, they were excited to munch on large paper red, white, and blue balls filled with chicken parts.  As it was explained, they don't eat the paper. They remove the chicken, gobble it down and play with the smashed and torn balls.  There is no fighting because there are enough balls to go around.  

 

Oh, did I mention we watched as several of the tigers enjoyed a cooling splash-about and swim in pools inside their enclosures.

 

In a perfect world, these wonderful creatures would be living free.  It is clear the folks running the Catty Shack love their animals and treat them as the treasures they are.

 

For more information visit www.cattyshack.org or call 904 757-3603.

Hollywood Hearts- CHER LIVE



Five girlfriends and I went to the Dressed to Kill 2014 Cher concert in Jacksonville, Florida. The opening act was Cyndi Lauper. In black leather and a wicked long red wig, she looked great and sang for a solid hour.  What surprised me was the power in her voice doing At Last near the end of her performance. Her only props were a backdrop of psychedelic colors. Since part of the fun for me, besides the music and the costumes, are the sets, I guessed Cher's show would be the same level of nothing stage production.
 

Take It Like a Man  (Where is Cher? Watch the video and see.)

 click here to see the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNiyGQE3Nt8

 

Man-oh-man was I wrong.  Cher's show was full-blown Las Vegas-style entertainment! And at age 68, she looked beautiful.  I took my binoculars and, checking out the movie screens on either side of the stage, she hadn't a wrinkle.  We all know she's had work done, but it is the best work ever. Hats off to her doctors and her face isn't so stiff that she can't smile. I sincerely mean this in the best way possible.

 

 

So back to the show.  Cher began with a question to the audience, something like, "So where is your granny tonight?", and she was off.  Beginning with  Woman's World,  it morphed into some vampire thing, not my favorite,  and she continued to sing seventeen more songs, all of which were hits.  Between her songs, her dozen dancers wiggled and writhed in their expected scanty costumes while she changed wigs and outfits, oh the outfits.

 The sets changed, too, with the help of a huge back screen wild with a castle interior or a Greek temple (as in first picture/video above) on fire or glittering stars, all with the accompanying flashing flurry of ever-changing lights bouncing to the beat. With so much to see, there was no way to take it all in the first time. Bring on YouTube.com.  I found the video clips there and most of the traveling tour show can be seen, too.  It doesn't compete with being in the Veteran's Coliseum live with Cher, but it will give you a good clue as to what it was like.
 

 

Sonny and Cher singing I Got You Babe

She didn't forget Sonny and sang an I Got You Babe duet with him from their old black and white TV show days.  She said it took her a long time to be able to get through it.  She mastered it without a hitch. The scenery was back and white, so she popped in her red body suit. Bring on the golden Trojan Horse and her exit from it. Colors and glitter and sparkle were everywhere as her performance lasted about an hour and three-quarters.  It was a workout but you'd never know because it's all a part of her.  She said this is her final-final tour and then winked.  I'm glad she winked.  She can never say goodbye to her music, her sequins and her great hair.  Her fans won't let her.  
 

 

 Hope You Find It, closing number

click here to see the video -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wxUeVYKkFE

 

 

I snapped the photos of Cher myself.  The two videos are from YouTube.com.  Thank you, as always to them and those who post for all of us to see. 

 

mini TV interview

Last Saturday, I was doing a book signing at Books Plus on Centre Street, downtown  on our beautiful Amelia Island.  Fellow writer, Chuck Barrett, author of Breach of Power, was also signing his novels. That's when I spied a News 4 Jax (Jacksonville) TV reporter and she spied us. She was doing a piece on the first day of summer, June 21, and taping segments around the island for it. And so we were interviewed. While that interview lasted all of two minutes, only 16 seconds made it past the final edit.

When it aired, I snapped a photo from the television and for some electronic reason I don't care to investigate at this time, the quality of the picture isn't good, but you get the idea. While my words were less than eloquent, I mentioned "island paradise" three times, these interviews are good practice for my acceptance speech when I'm awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Chuck Barrett and JMM interviewed