You Won't BELIEVE What We Found on Our Bike Ride...

Hint: It has 8 legs and is fuzzy.

May 29, 2025

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Today we’re taking a break from practical triathlon tips and mindset skills, because I want to tell you a story.

This is a camel.

(A dromedary to be exact, because he has one hump. Thanks Google).

And as weird as it was seeing a camel in Florida, this wasn’t the craziest thing we found on our bike ride over the weekend.

But let’s start at the beginning…

Because it was Memorial Day weekend, my husband Matt and I had plenty of fun training activities on the schedule. Saturday morning was a 3-hour bike ride, so we headed to a rural area with long stretches of scenic country roads and minimal traffic.

The location is about 40 minutes from our house. As we were driving to the park where we would start the ride, we saw a pair of squirrels sitting on the side of the road. This was odd because squirrels are tiny, kamikaze maniacs. They dart halfway across the road, only to change their mind and dart back in a bizarre game that significantly raises my heart rate.

But squirrels never sit still…

Also these were very small squirrels, just sitting on the road, looking lost and helpless.

That’s because they weren’t squirrels at all. They were kittens!

Matt stopped the car, and we tried to get close to the kittens, but they scrambled up a nearby hill and under a wire fence. We could see there were two of them, and they were very small, definitely too little to be left alone without their mom.

It’s a pretty isolated area with no houses for miles, so they didn’t belong to anyone. Still, Matt thought their mom might’ve been a wild cat who was hunting nearby, so we didn’t want to snatch her babies if they weren’t in any danger. He said we could stop by after our ride, and if they were still there, we would take them home.

After getting to the park, we started our ride and did three hours on hills in the heat and humidity. Florida is fun this time of year. Although the road is beautiful and secluded, there’s no shade, so we were feeling the heat by lunchtime.

This is also where our friend, the camel, lives. I have no idea why someone has a camel in Florida. (Apparently, camels fall under Class III of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission regulations, so you can keep them as pets if you have a permit).

Also on this ride, we saw two large fox squirrels- big, bushy, silver-tailed guys. There was also a murderous bunny who darted across the road in front of us while we were riding 24 mph. There were two giant box turtles, a snake, and a few horses, lots of cows, and a very friendly pitbull who took advantage of the stop sign to give us a few licks before we went on our way.

After the ride, we stopped by a local cafe to pick up sandwiches to eat on the drive back home. When we got back to the road where we’d spotted the kittens, I was certain they wouldn’t be there. It had been four hours since we’d last seen them, but we wanted to look anyways.

Apparently, I do a mean impression of a cat, because after making a few “meow” sounds, we heard tiny mews calling back from the bushes. The kittens were still there! I couldn’t believe it, but now we had to figure out how to catch them…

I’m very allergic to position ivy, so Matt crawled into the dense undergrowth, navigating prickly vines and branches, trying to get close to the kittens. But they were very scared, and surprisingly fast with such little legs. I was afraid they would get lost in the brush.

Luckily, I had some turkey leftover from my sandwich. I threw a couple of small pieces into the bushes and they came running. The gobbled it up so fast. They must have been starving. Also, it was 95 degrees at this point, and I didn’t know how long they’d gone without water.

I snatched them up and wrapped them in a blanket (they did not appreciate this) and we headed home. Meanwhile, we tried to figure out what on earth we were going to do with two, abandoned kittens…

As a kid, I grew up in the country, and most of our pets were abandoned animals. When you live off the beaten path, it’s a pretty common occurrence to see unwanted animals dropped off, either in the hopes that someone will take them in or they will learn how to survive in the wild. (People can be total morons).

That was likely the case with these kittens, or a wild cat left them there or wasn’t able to return for some reason.

Regardless, I’m glad we found them and could give them the care they deserve.

On the way home, we called our coach (and expert rescuer of abandoned kitties) for some advice, then headed to the pet store for supplies. Since we have a 60 lb. dog (Ellie Mae) the kitties needed to be sequestered in a room by themselves. We set them up in our spare bathroom with a litter box, blanket, some kitten food, and water.

Our vet wasn’t open, due to the holiday weekend, but we planned to take the kittens on Tuesday to get them checked out.

They were covered in fleas, ticks, and had ear mites, so we wanted to give them a bath… (This lead to Matt researching cat-washing gloves, because these little guys have sharp teeth and nails.)

We washed them in warm water with a bit of Dawn dish soap. If it’s safe enough to clean baby ducks from oil spills, we figured it would work on kittens! They didn't hate it, but weren’t super thrilled either.

As it turns out, they’re both boys, about 8 weeks old, and just under two pounds each. Our vet gave them their first kitten shots, did a blood test, and gave us flea and tick medicine and dewormer. Despite the parasites, she says they’re pretty healthy! They have to go back in three weeks for their second round of shots.

Over the past five days, we’ve learned a lot about their personalities. At first, they were both terrified and would cower in the corner. But after 24 hours, they’d progressed to using Matt as a jungle gym and untying his shoelaces.

The bigger kitten is an athletic, little guy, always running, jumping, and bouncing off the walls. He loves attacking a pair of Alphafly shoelaces we gave him. The smaller kitten is quiet and cuddly. He prefers to sit in your lap and purr. They’re both very sweet, and we’re so glad they’re safe and healthy.

They can’t meet Ellie Mae for another three weeks, but in the meantime, we’ll be taking name suggestions! We have a few ideas, but want to see what you come up with.

They’re both mackerel tabby cats, so they have stripes that resemble fish bones with a distinctive “M” on their foreheads. They also have white paws and white bibs on their chests.

Comment below if you have any great ideas!

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Also, paid subscribers get the e-book for free. Check your email for the discount code or email me if you didn’t receive it.

Monthly Speaker Announcement!

Drum-roll please….

We’re excited to have professional triathlete, Grace Alexander, join us for our monthly expert chat tomorrow, Friday, May 30th at 6 pm EST. Fresh off the heels of winning St. Anthony’s Triathlon and 70.3 Chattanooga, we’ll be talking to Grace about overcoming race day obstacles (did you know she was stung by a stingray at St. A’s and overcame a cancelled swim to win 70.3 Chattanooga?!)

We’ll also discuss mindset tips when recovering from injury, how to develop feel in training, triathlon goals, and of course her cat, Gizmo!

These chats are a benefit of membership to the Triple Threat Life Club, so upgrade your subscription today. For just $5 a month, you receive:

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Paid subscribers, look for a Zoom meeting link coming to your inbox soon. Please join a few minutes early so we can start promptly at 6 pm EST.

News & Notes:

Recently Published Work: 12 Unique Running Races You Can Still Sign up for in 2025. Some races are special, not because of their size or prestige, but because they embrace the quirky, weird, and totally wackadoodle that runners love. In this piece for Outside Run, I gathered 12 unique, scenic, and downright wacky races you can still sign up for in 2025. We’re talking about races with cake at aid stations and diamond rings as awards. Races where you run from aliens, participate in a multigenerational feud, sample bourbon, or run up 86 flights of stairs. Races that take place at night under the midnight sun, underground in an active salt mine, or from a lighthouse on the coast.
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