My Latest App Obsession

 

I tend to get obsessed with things.  I download something on my phone and it is everything for a while.  My latest obsession is Treat.  It is all about sending food to dogs in shelters.  Being an animal lover, I downloaded it right away.

When you first log on you are given a list of shelters across the country.  When you pick your shelter, you are given a list of a few dogs at that shelter and you get to pick again.  Then the virtual version of your dog is sent around a track.  You roll a die and he runs.  If he lands on the treat spot several times he earns a treat.  If he lands on the bowls of food or the game spots he earns kibbles toward meals.

The games can earn you kibbles faster.  You can pick your dog's picture out of a pack, teach your dog a trick or pick the healthiest snack (hint: it is not the avocado) among other things.

Is it free? Yes.  Do they try to get you to spend money? Of course.  The only thing you can do for free is send the treats you earn.  If you want to send the meals it will cost you $5.96 a month.  But that is for all the meals you can earn for as many dogs as you want to help.  I did that one.  That may make me a sucker but I couldn't look at the cute little faces of the dogs and not want to help.  You can also remote foster a dog and buy more rolls of the die.  

My favorite part is when I open the app and they tell me dogs have been adopted.  Then they show me pictures of all the adopted dogs.  it warms my heart to see the dogs who have found homes, even if they are not dogs I have been sending food.  

I feel a sense of satisfaction every time I earn food for a dog.  I makes me happy.

If you like animals, give it a try.  But be warned, it can become an addiction.

Feed a Squirrel Today!

Today (January 21st 2025) is National Squirrel Appreciation Day!  Now, not everyone appreciates these little guys.  My mother for one.  They ruin her garden every year and she can't stand them.  I happen to think they are kind of cute and have been known to throw them nuts sometimes.  (Don't tell my mother.) So, in honor of this special day I decided to read a book about squirrels.  

The Secret Life of Squirrels by Sue Pope

The grey squirrels are worried about having enough food for the winter.  They hear about trees that grow acorns all year long.  The only problem is these trees are on the Isle of Wight, where birth the humans and the red squirrels do not want grey squirrels.  The grey squirrels must find a way to get to this never ending food source even if it means war with the red squirrels.

I was browsing around on my local library's website and saw this book.  The story sounded fun, so I borrowed an electronic copy.  I read it on an app on my phone.  In that format the book had 681 pages.  I felt it was too long by about 400 pages.  Although the stated plot line is there, most of the book is not about that at all.  Most of the book is squirrels doing human things: going to concerts, learning to surf, ordering things on the internet, visiting the in-laws.  All of which is cute, up to a point.  But it is not enough to carry a whole book.  In an attempt to show the squirrels living their human-like lives the plot gets so lost it feels like there isn't one at all.  And it could have done with a good edit as well.  The story did have some fun moments.  It was fun to imagine squirrels having all the same problems as us and living this complex life right under the human's noses (humans who occasionally find evidence of this life and dismiss it as impossible) but, for me, it is too much.  The story never really goes anywhere.  After a while it just seems to drag on too much.  The idea had some great potential but I don't think it was realized here.

Eww, slimy!

 Amorphous Breaking the Mold by Steven Burgess

In the near future, an eclectic group of friends finds themselves in the center of an alien invasion.  When an interstellar object crashes into Earth and releases an alien lifeform that starts to subsume people the friends are surprised to find that they are the best chance to save the human race.

I can't say I didn't like this book, but it was not what I expected.  For an alien invasion story there was a lack of alien lifeforms in the first two thirds of the book.  I was also surprised by the fact that most of the book is conversation.  Even after the alien lifeform arrives, almost everyone (even the often mentioned AI) sits or stands around having philosophical discussions.  I was often left waiting for something to happen.  Anything.  Some of the discussions were interesting, but for me, it was too much.  Too much of the book takes place around a restaurant table.  I do like the interesting take on an alien invasion.  There were some fun moments.  But the write up is misleading and I was left slightly disappointed.  

I received a free copy of this book for review from Library Thing Early Reviewers.