Nutmeg's Zooniverse

Signal Boosting My Own Signal Boost

2016-01-20T02:31:48Z

You guys have been wonderful. Thanks mainly to you, a sweet dog is close to getting the treatment she needs. The half-way mark is behind us, and only $345 stands between her and the finish line. There are only a few days to go, so if you haven't donated yet and can spare even a few dollars, please help Yazmine and the family that loves her.

https://www.gofundme.com/hkg583y4

Thanks so much.

PS - This is a public post, as are the other two about the campaign, so feel free to link people back here.

You Guys Rock!

2016-01-18T14:26:50Z

In just a few hours, you donated over $100 to Yazmine's medical fund, and there are still 4 days to go to put her over the top. She's the best friend of a 7-year-old girl and the beloved pet of an older couple dealing with their own medical issues. They've asked for the bare minimum to get Yazmine's treatment on track and then can cover the ongoing costs themselves, and they're nearly halfway there now. Please donate if you haven't yet and signal boost to reach even more people.

I'm so heartened by the response to my first post, and I have to believe that if we all do even a little bit, we can make this happen.

Here's the link: https://www.gofundme.com/hkg583y4?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cta_button&utm_campaign=upd_n

Thank you again.

Please help. Even $5 will make a difference,

2016-01-17T18:12:05Z

A friend of a friend is trying to raise money for diabetes treatment for his much-loved dog, companion to his granddaughter. He's asking for very little in the scheme of things, but with only a few days left he's barely a third of the way to his extremely reasonable goal. He and his wife both have medical challenges of their own that have sapped their savings, so anything any of you can do to help would make a family's life brighter and save a sweet, deserving dog. Here's the link:

https://www.gofundme.com/hkg583y4?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cta_button&utm_campaign=upd_n

I know money is tight for all of us, but please, if you can spare anything, help if you can.

Thanks for indulging me.

It's Squirrel Appreciation Day!

2015-01-22T00:36:45Z

Today is Squirrel Appreciation Day! I appreciate them every day, of course, but in their honor I took a few pictures of them earlier today while they were snacking out on the deck. So here you go, some of the cutest of our furry friends.

Help Change Ohio's Law on Owning Exotic Pets

2011-10-21T22:41:38Z

After the slaughter of so many animals - many of them endangered - in Ohio the other day, a petition has been started to change the state's law, one of the laxest in the nation, to make it harder to keep exotic animals as "pets." I've signed, and if you want to sign, too, click the link.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/577/318/776/

Writer's Block: Into the wild

2011-08-09T13:14:10Z

Oh my fucking FSM! What an incredibly stupid question. Would it be nice for all the animals in the world to live free? Of course it would! But when you've got the government of Tanzania planning a paved road to bisect the Serengeti, disrupting the great migrations and - not coincidentally - approving a now-reachable mine within spitting distance of Lake Natron, the only known breeding ground for East Africa's endangered lesser flamingos; when then US leases vast tracts of public land to wealthy cattle ranchers for pennies an acre and thumbs its nose at the populations of native wildlife, not to mention turns wolves from predators to prey, with humans holding the guns and flying the helicopters; when the ENTIRE POPULATION of the tiny Kihansi spray toad had to be removed from its sole micro-habitat to preserve it when the government (Tanzania again!) dammed the river that created that habitat to *gasp!* benefit private industry; when the South American rain forest is being slashed and burned at a rate that will see it demolished by mid-century, at a cost of 137 animal and plant species lost EVERY DAY... And those are just a few notable items on a list that goes on and on.

And against that background, with zoos bastions of conservation projects not only "on site" but in the field, and leaders in responsible breeding practices to preserve genetic diversity in species that in many cases no longer have wild populations capable of staving off a population crash and extinction, some fecking eejit thinks it would be "kind" to release an animal that has never had to find its own food and has no natural survival skills - in many cases including a fear of people, who would be its greatest enemies - into the wild?

Color me appalled by the idiocy of today's question.

Kaiya's First Therapy Dog Visit

2010-12-20T23:46:31Z

Kaiya and I were officially Delta certified last spring, but because my hip was really starting to act up, and because my plan was to do a reading program with her - which involves sitting on the ground - we never actually did anything to use our new status. And just to fill in the whole background, I didn't plan to do nursing home visits, at least right away, because her greetings can still be a bit rambunctious.

Fast forward to me being here in rehab with my new titanium hip and finding out that patients' dogs can come visit. So who was the recipient of Kaiya's first therapy-dog visit this afternoon? Meeeee! And I can't tell you what a lift I felt seeing her.

It was pretty funny, because my dog-training friend U brought her, and when I called the training/daycare/boarding facility to give the official OK for U to spring her, they said this was the first time ever that Kaiya had seemed sad while she was there. I'm sure she's sensed for a long time that I wasn't well, since our walks were so much slower and shorter than they used to be, and then I made a big deal of saying goodbye when I left her there, which I don't usually do. But then, when U got here with her, she gave me the cold shoulder. She stared at me as I reached the lobby, then turned away and literally turned her back on me when U sat her next to me on a couch in the lobby. I was petting her and talking to her, but she absolutely would not look around.

Because I'm using a cane (but no longer a walker!), U held the leash as we walked back to my room. Kaiya was interested in sniffing everything and looking in every room we passed, but no way was she looking at me. But U said whenever Kaiya stopped to check something out and I kept walking, suddenly she'd hurry down the hall after me. Back at my room, she finally jumped on the bed and curled up at my feet, but still with her back to me. However, the T-word ("treat") got her attention - thank you, queenofattolia for the salty mix - and all of a sudden she loved me again. After that I got my kisses and that head-tilty attentive look I love so much.

After that I took the leash and we went visiting, and I discovered that she'll make a really good nursing-home dog. She was gentle and calm - although when I handed the leash to U and stepped off to the side to talk to one of the staff, she turned and focused totally on me, as if she was worried I might escape. Eventually I walked with her and U back to the front door, but we didn't make a big deal of her leaving, and U got her focused on a squeakie toy as she led her out. So hopefully now she's not fretting - and U is going to bring her back tomorrow, too, and maybe even Wednesday.

Honestly, I can't tell you how much it cheered me up to see her, even if she was being a snot. And I hope now she'll be her usual self at Doggone Smart again, because I feel so guilty that I made her sad.

Writer's Block: Pet talk

2010-04-07T14:52:28Z

Gollum (cat): Why did you get that damn dog, anyway?
Grendel (cat): Yeah, but thanks for not letting her sleep on the bed, so there's room for me.
Kaiya (dog): You guys are such weenies. I just wanna plaaaaay!
Bug (sugar glider): We get yogurt drops and you don't. Neener, neener, neener!
Gobo (sugar glider): What she said. Also? Mom's tummy is really soft and warm
Mom: Hey! Are you saying I'm fat?
Gobo: Yogurt drops! Thanks for the yogurt drops.
Mom: ::grumbles about indentured servitude and goes to dig out pet treats::

Politics: An Article I Think Is A Must-Read

2008-10-01T17:43:02Z

It's no secret that Sarah Palin and I disagree on every specific point I can think of, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm going to post an article, written by Sam Harris and published in Newsweek, that I hope everyone will read, because it speaks to the simple fact that whether you agree with her positions or not, whether you like her or not, she's simply not qualified to hold the position for which she's running.

I'll put the entire article under a cut, but I'm going to post one brief section in public, because I think it's so key:

Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

Please don't be put off by the title of the article, which I think is asinine. And please read it carefully, because I know some of you are in the "agree to disagree" camp politically. He's not denigrating religion or trying to deprive Sarah Palin of her right to worship in any way she chooses, but he's rightly questioning both her tendency to define political positions in terms of "God's plan" in a country that mandates the separation of church and state, and whether her particular religious beliefs and fervor argue against her ability to do the particular job in question: VP, and potentially the job of President.

Yes, he has a point of view to sell, and he's not above the occasional descent into bad taste, but his arguments are sound, and I have yet to hear - from anyone or in any venue - a rebuttal that relies on logic rather than emotion and empathy.

When Atheists Attack
A noted provocateur rips Sarah Palin—and defends elitism.

Sam Harris
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Sep 29, 2008

Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin's performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin's speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal cortex of every American and plant a three-inch heel directly on that limbic circuit that ceaselessly intones "God and country." If anyone could make Christian theocracy smell like apple pie, Sarah Palin could.

Then came Palin's first television interview with Charles Gibson. I was relieved to discover, as many were, that Palin's luster can be much diminished by the absence of a teleprompter. Still, the problem she poses to our political process is now much bigger than she is. Her fans seem inclined to forgive her any indiscretion short of cannibalism. However badly she may stumble during the remaining weeks of this campaign, her supporters will focus their outrage upon the journalist who caused her to break stride, upon the camera operator who happened to capture her fall, upon the television network that broadcast the good lady's misfortune—and, above all, upon the "liberal elites" with their highfalutin assumption that, in the 21st century, only a reasonably well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal.

The point to be lamented is not that Sarah Palin comes from outside Washington, or that she has glimpsed so little of the earth's surface (she didn't have a passport until last year), or that she's never met a foreign head of state. The point is that she comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her. There is nothing to suggest that she even sees a role for careful analysis or a deep understanding of world events when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation. In her interview with Gibson, Palin managed to turn a joke about seeing Russia from her window into a straight-faced claim that Alaska's geographical proximity to Russia gave her some essential foreign-policy experience. Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.

The problem, as far as our political process is concerned, is that half the electorate revels in Palin's lack of intellectual qualifications. When it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country. "They think they're better than you!" is the refrain that (highly competent and cynical) Republican strategists have set loose among the crowd, and the crowd has grown drunk on it once again. "Sarah Palin is an ordinary person!" Yes, all too ordinary.

We have all now witnessed apparently sentient human beings, once provoked by a reporter's microphone, saying things like, "I'm voting for Sarah because she's a mom. She knows what it's like to be a mom." Such sentiments suggest an uncanny (and, one fears, especially American) detachment from the real problems of today. The next administration must immediately confront issues like nuclear proliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere), global climate change, a convulsing economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, emerging epidemics, Islamism on a hundred fronts, a defunct United Nations, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy, infrastructure and Internet security … the list is long, and Sarah Palin does not seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them.

Palin's most conspicuous gaffe in her interview with Gibson has been widely discussed. The truth is, I didn't much care that she did not know the meaning of the phrase "Bush doctrine." And I am quite sure that her supporters didn't care, either. Most people view such an ambush as a journalistic gimmick. What I do care about are all the other things Palin is guaranteed not to know—or will be glossing only under the frenzied tutelage of John McCain's advisers. What doesn't she know about financial markets, Islam, the history of the Middle East, the cold war, modern weapons systems, medical research, environmental science or emerging technology? Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin's ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth.

I care even more about the many things Palin thinks she knows but doesn't: like her conviction that the Biblical God consciously directs world events. Needless to say, she shares this belief with mil-lions of Americans—but we shouldn't be eager to give these people our nuclear codes, either. There is no question that if President McCain chokes on a spare rib and Palin becomes the first woman president, she and her supporters will believe that God, in all his majesty and wisdom, has brought it to pass. Why would God give Sarah Palin a job she isn't ready for? He wouldn't. Everything happens for a reason. Palin seems perfectly willing to stake the welfare of our country—even the welfare of our species—as collateral in her own personal journey of faith. Of course, McCain has made the same unconscionable wager on his personal journey to the White House.

In speaking before her church about her son going to war in Iraq, Palin urged the congregation to pray "that our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God; that's what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God's plan." When asked about these remarks in her interview with Gibson, Palin successfully dodged the issue of her religious beliefs by claiming that she had been merely echoing the words of Abraham Lincoln. The New York Times later dubbed her response "absurd." It was worse than absurd; it was a lie calculated to conceal the true character of her religious infatuations. Every detail that has emerged about Palin's life in Alaska suggests that she is as devout and literal-minded in her Christian dogmatism as any man or woman in the land. Given her long affiliation with the Assemblies of God church, Palin very likely believes that Biblical prophecy is an infallible guide to future events and that we are living in the "end times." Which is to say she very likely thinks that human history will soon unravel in a foreordained cataclysm of war and bad weather. Undoubtedly Palin believes that this will be a good thing—as all true Christians will be lifted bodily into the sky to make merry with Jesus, while all nonbelievers, Jews, Methodists and other rabble will be punished for eternity in a lake of fire. Like many Pentecostals, Palin may even imagine that she and her fellow parishioners enjoy the power of prophecy themselves. Otherwise, what could she have meant when declaring to her congregation that "God's going to tell you what is going on, and what is going to go on, and you guys are going to have that within you"?

You can learn something about a person by the company she keeps. In the churches where Palin has worshiped for decades, parishioners enjoy "baptism in the Holy Spirit," "miraculous healings" and "the gift of tongues." Invariably, they offer astonishingly irrational accounts of this behavior and of its significance for the entire cosmos. Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?

It is easy to see what many people, women especially, admire about Sarah Palin. Here is a mother of five who can see the bright side of having a child with Down syndrome and still find the time and energy to govern the state of Alaska. But we cannot ignore the fact that Palin's impressive family further testifies to her dogmatic religious beliefs. Many writers have noted the many shades of conservative hypocrisy on view here: when Jamie Lynn Spears gets pregnant, it is considered a symptom of liberal decadence and the breakdown of family values; in the case of one of Palin's daughters, however, teen pregnancy gets reinterpreted as a sign of immaculate, small-town fecundity. And just imagine if, instead of the Palins, the Obama family had a pregnant, underage daughter on display at their convention, flanked by her black boyfriend who "intends" to marry her. Who among conservatives would have resisted the temptation to speak of "the dysfunction in the black community"?

Teen pregnancy is a misfortune, plain and simple. At best, it represents bad luck (both for the mother and for the child); at worst, as in the Palins' case, it is a symptom of religious dogmatism. Governor Palin opposes sex education in schools on religious grounds. She has also fought vigorously for a "parental consent law" in the state of Alaska, seeking full parental dominion over the reproductive decisions of minors. We know, therefore, that Palin believes that she should be the one to decide whether her daughter carries her baby to term. Based on her stated position, we know that she would deny her daughter an abortion even if she had been raped. One can be forgiven for doubting whether Bristol Palin had all the advantages of 21st-century family planning—or, indeed, of the 21st century.

We have endured eight years of an administration that seemed touched by religious ideology. Bush's claim to Bob Woodward that he consulted a "higher Father" before going to war in Iraq got many of us sitting upright, before our attention wandered again to less ethereal signs of his incompetence. For all my concern about Bush's religious beliefs, and about his merely average grasp of terrestrial reality, I have never once thought that he was an over-the-brink, Rapture-ready extremist. Palin seems as though she might be the real McCoy. With the McCain team leading her around like a pet pony between now and Election Day, she can be expected to conceal her religious extremism until it is too late to do anything about it. Her supporters know that while she cannot afford to "talk the talk" between now and Nov. 4, if elected, she can be trusted to "walk the walk" until the Day of Judgment.

What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world's only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:

"Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child's brain?"

"Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I'm an avid hunter."

"But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind."

"That's just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink."

The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

I believe that with the nomination of Sarah Palin for the vice presidency, the silliness of our politics has finally put our nation at risk. The world is growing more complex—and dangerous—with each passing hour, and our position within it growing more precarious. Should she become president, Palin seems capable of enacting policies so detached from the common interests of humanity, and from empirical reality, as to unite the entire world against us. When asked why she is qualified to shoulder more responsibility than any person has held in human history, Palin cites her refusal to hesitate. "You can't blink," she told Gibson repeatedly, as though this were a primordial truth of wise governance. Let us hope that a President Palin would blink, again and again, while more thoughtful people decide the fate of civilization.

Harris is a founder of The Reason Project and author of The New York Times best sellers “The End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation.” His Web site is samharris.org.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080

© 2008

This election and the selection of our next President/Vice-President are crucial to the fate - at home and abroad - of this country in ways no other election and selection in my lifetime have been. (I'll be 55 in March, in case you're wondering just what that lifetime consists of.) There's too much on the line for anyone, of any affiliation, to be a one-issue voter, to vote from the gut without at least letting the head think very carefully about what that would mean, or to base a decision on top-level soundbites, or personal identification with one candidate or the other. Palin's a woman and Obama's black, and I don't think every black should vote for him any more than I think every woman should vote for her, though I'm sure there are some voters whose decisions will be based on precisely those criteria. (Which puts black women in an odd position and proves exactly why those criteria are stupid ones.)

Bottom line: Have a beer with anyone you want, but choose a President and Vice President who've both got the credentials and the gravitas and the temperament to do the job. I think a lot of the anti-elitism grows from fear and insecurity, and the sense that someone smarter and better-educated is going to pull the wool over our collective eyes. Well, you know what? I don't want an administration with people just like me at the top, because I know damn well I'm not up to the job. I want the people whose fingers are on The Button to be better and smarter than I am - and I'm not afraid to say so.

Do It for the Babies

2008-07-28T02:28:07Z

The baby dragons, that is. Please click.

Stupid People Make Me Mad

2008-06-26T12:11:04Z

And Bill O'Reilly is at the top of my Stupid!People List. This story - http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/06/25/heinz/index.html?source=newsletter - is from today's salon.com, and apparently Bill isn't the only stupid one, he's just got the bigget soapbox.

The story's about a UK mayo ad that's being pulled because homophobia makes people stupid, basically. The ad itself is adorable, it's clearly not about *gasp* a gay couple at all (not that any sane person would give a rat's ass if it was), and pulling it is wrong in too many ways to count.

Note to advertisers: When the customer's a fuckwit, the customer is not always right.

Puppy Update - With Pictures!

2008-05-31T02:07:45Z

Bored yet? Trust me, you soon will be. *g*

Kaiya continues to be adorable, and I say that even though there were two indoor accidents today. (I know where I screwed up on the second, but how/when she managed the first is a mystery.) Her adventures today: Petco and my nail salon, and more fun with the neighbors. But her big triumph was at Wednesday's puppy class. She's 3.5 lbs. The next smallest dogs in class were a golden retriever and a Portugeuse water dog. There were also an Old English sheepdog, a chocolate lab, a lab/hound cross and a border collie/something big cross. And Kaiya didn't care. During the off-leash play periods she rough-and-tumbled with the rest, and when they were running around the room, she raced after them on her tiny little legs. She also ran right up the 4' ramp, surveyed the room and ran back down. No dog aggression, and she was so calm that she sacked out and napped while the instructor was talking. Everyone loved her, too. I was a proud mama. *g*

She still hates riding in the car, but tomorrow (when she's going with me to a writers' conference) I'm going to try her in the car seat, which is like a raised bed she's seatbelted into, because I know part of her problem is that she hates being confined. She's screeching less when I go out of the room, though, and this morning she stayed quiet 'til the alarm went off. (That's vs. two hours of screeching the first morning and about half an hour per morning since.) She and Kizzy continue to nose each other undramatically when they meet, but the boys are still terrified of her, despite being almost five times her weight.

OK, I've blathered enough. How about a few pictures?

I get a lot of shots of her in bed, because 1) she's holding still, and 2) she's so darn cute.

But today I also remembered to take the camera outside with me. Resist this face if you dare.

Puppy tongue!

And this one cracks me up. I'm using a TV stand to store office supplies and manuscripts, and her food is kept on top of it, so she decided to scramble up and squish herself into the middle shelf (which is well above her head) in an attempt to steal a snack.

And now I'll spare you any more puppy rambling until further notice.

Puppy Pictures!

2008-05-27T20:34:53Z

Here are a few pictures my sister took yesterday, when we went to pick up Kaiya. They're not the greatest, but you can see how much she's changed from when I first met her.

And I took these of her last night. Please to excuse the filthy rug.

This one cracks me up. She was hanging out of bed all upside down.

Footie!

I'm sure there will be more to come. *g*

She's Heeeeee-ere!

2008-05-27T02:07:17Z

OMFSM, she's so cute! And so little. She has a big head, though, which I've decided means she's really smart. She's already learning to walk on a leash with only minor objections, she goes in and out of her crate, she's peed and pooped outside only, she's learning what to chew and what not to, and she figured out right away that her bed was for sleeping. Oh, and she already knows how to climb up and down stairs. Yay! Also, the breeder said she's also already asking to go out when she needs to. That alone is worthy of major squee.

She already looks so different from when I first saw her. Her nose is pointy, her ears are up, she's lightening toward her final color, and the black on her muzzle is already starting to be replaced with the regulation white/cream.

Oh! And her call name is Kaiya, taken from what will be her registered name: Yukai Kitsune, which is Japanese for Happy Fox.

The drive was...interesting. There's something called the Shiba scream, and she's mastered it. My sister went with me to the breeder's, and on the way back to RI we were treated to the Shiba scream at full volume most of the way. Finally she screeched herself out and napped. She got to meet most of the family - including Lyssa the dog and Squishy the cat (Oreo, the other cat, didn't make an appearance) - and was petted within an inch of her life, which I guess tuckered her out further, because after screeching madly as I bought gas - under $4.00 a gallon! - she gave up on me making the torture stop and slept the whole way home.

The breeder gave me all kinds of goodies, too: a crate, tons of toys and chewy things, and a crate pad that smells like her old home, which I put in her night crate up in my bedroom.

So far the cats are steering clear, though Kismet at least let me hold her up close so they could sniff each other. Gollum ran past as fast as he possibly could, and Grendel has refused to come out to the living room (where I've got her with me) at all. They'll sort themselves out in time, though. I'm totally unworried on that score, knowing what sweeties they all are at heart, and also having mixed a cat with dogs before with entirely satisfactory results.

Anyway, there will be photos, though probably not tonight. My sister took a bunch this morning when I picked her up, and I took a few of her sleeping half out of her bed this afternoon.

The agenda for the rest of the week involves her vet appointment and first puppy class, cleaning, freelancing, lunch with a friend, and meeting with the dog walker who's going to do her midday walk on my zoo days until she's old enough to hold it all day. Saturday I have to speak at a conference, and Sunday is one of the aforementioned zoo days (and my Madagascar training).

Eeeeeee! So cute! She just took her crunchy rawhide stick and climbed into her bed.

Things to be discussed in future posts: Inigo is home and being reloaded with all his former files and software; South Pacific was fabulous; and other things I thought of earlier and have now forgotten.

Wolves!

2008-02-03T03:35:47Z

Today was my second wolf photo session. It poured rain here yesterday, so not only was there no snow, there was mud. (That's really apparent in some of my Apache shots.) Frustratingly, it was gorgeously sunny as I drove up there - until about five minutes before I arrived. And it stayed overcast for the rest of the afternoon. Grrrr. It was a bit warmer than last time, though, and this time there were no wankers. Yay! I also got a glimpse of one of the red wolves today, which was kind of cool.

Since I mostly got shots of the pack last time, today I spent over an hour shooting Atka, and I was rewarded with some nice shots. So here he is, in all his furry glory.

Prepare for lots and lots of white wolf photos. (And I'm not kidding about the "lots and lots" part.)

Stinkin' tree!

While I'm on the subject of white wolves, here's Apache.

Life is tough. *g*

Here's Apache with Kyla.

And Kyla on her own.

Finally, Lucas of the blue, blue eyes. I asked about that today, but he really is pure Canadian timber wolf. He's one of the very rare specimens who kept the blue eyes the pups are born with, and damn, he's a stunner.

I'm bored.

So that was my day. How was yours?

Zoo Pics!

2008-01-20T22:30:15Z

It was coooolllld here today, but sunny, and since I was going to the zoo anyway for a class (mammals - my favorites, I confess), I wandered around for a while afterwards and - big surprise - took a bunch of pictures. The usual suspects are here, of course, along with some new ones. Everything's resized, but this is still going to take a week to download if you're on dial-up. (OK, not really a week, but it will feel like it.)

First I went to Jungle World and finally got a decent shot of the binturong's whiskery face. adjrun, this one's for you. *g*

Also finally...the tree kangaroos weren't hiding from me. In fact, they were eating and interacting. Woot!

The tapir was being its usual lazy self, but that just made getting this shot easy.

Life isn't life without monkeys, so here are some ebony langurs.

This one just owns me.

The gibbon (an ape, not a monkey) was sleepy.

Then there was that cheerful little bird I like, even though I still don't know what he is.

And then I decided to try getting some shots of the fish and the turtles, a first for me. I rather like some of the results.

After that it was off to the Himalayan Highlands. The red pandas weren't out, but the snow leopards were. And...Leo has a girlfriend! One of them (I'm guessing him) periodically pounced on the other (I'm guessing her), who was not amused. Unfortunately they were always behind bushes at the time, so...no pictures. But that's OK, I got other shots.

The first one shows the face the big cats make when they're scenting the air.

Check out the teeth! (It was just a yawn.)

In the other enclosure, the mother was washing her cubs, who are pretty much her size at this point.

Then it was off to my last stop before I retreated to the relative warmth of my car, Tiger Mountain.

And my favorite (which I think I have to turn into an icon):

Wolves!

2008-01-19T23:58:40Z

This morning I went to the first of two photo sessions I'm doing at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, NY. (www.nywolf.org) There were about 15 people there, but some of them were couples sharing one camera. There were three guys with professional equipment (::pauses for a moment to turn green::), several (including me) with digital SLRs, and several with small digitals. Everyone was very nice, with the exception of one of the pros, who several times asked me and at least once asked another woman to move from where we were so he could get the shot he wanted. Yes, he drove up from Philadelphia, but hey, we all paid to be there and no one was hogging the various cutouts in the fence or the towers, and everyone else was willing to wait their turn. Interestingly, I didn't see him ask any of the men to move - and certainly not the men whose cameras rivaled his. Wanker.

But I digress.

We were there for two hours, free to wander between two enclosures, one with a group of three wolves: Apache (the Alpha), Lucas and Kyla (the Omega, and she really did look worried and sad a lot, but she's also twelve and wouldn't even be alive in the wild, and the staff make sure she gets her share of food), and one with a lone male: Atka. The angles and light weren't as good at Atka's area, so I mostly concentrated on the pack. Atka's all white. Apache has a lop ear (it was chewed by an older wolf when he was a pup) and is also all white. Kyla is gray with a black facial blaze, and Lucas is brown and gray with striking blue eyes. Just so you know who you'll be looking at.

It was freezing, but they had hot cider for us. There were only a couple of tiny patches of snow, so I'm hoping for a storm before my next trip (Feb 2). And now...the pictures.

These first two are of Atka, and I cropped them to get rid of most of the fencing.

Here's Apache. He did a lot of howling.

These shots give you a sense of pack interaction. Though it doesn't exactly look like it in these shots, this is Kyla showing submissive behavior to Apache.

Here's Kyla on her own. She had a very sweet expression, though I'm not sure I really caught it.

I love this shot of her running. Look at the way she's leaning.

Lucas was absolutely gorgeous. I took a lot of pictures of him, so here are some favorites.

I cropped that last one so you can really see his eyes.

Here he is loping.

And pouncing!

I really enjoyed myself, though the walk up the hill from the parking area was hell on my knees and pneumonia-ruined lungs. Still, it was well worth it, and I'm really looking forward to going back in a few weeks.

Holiday Wish List

2007-12-01T20:23:04Z

It's the 1st of December, and that means it's time for people's holiday wish lists to start popping up. This is my second annual holiday wish list, and it's pretty much the same as last year's, with a few additions. That's OK, 'cuz I liked last year's list just fine.

* If you happen to have some extra cash lying around, please consider sending some to my beloved Bronx Zoo (http://www.wcs.org/getinvolved/donations), the World Wildlife Fund (https://secure.worldwildlife.org/forms/acdev/adoptionCenter_1.cfm - and if you don't want the plushy, I collect 'em), Defenders of Wildlife (http://donate.defenders.org/site/PageServer?pagename=don_homepage - more plushies!) or The World Society for the Protection of Animals (http://www.reallywildgifts.ca/index.php).

* Consider shopping at GreaterGood.com (http://www.greatergood.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/GreaterGood), where up to 30% of what you spend goes to the charity of your choice, including The Hunger Site, The Rain Forest Site, etc. They frequently run ultra-low-cost shipping deals, too. And if you follow the links and click on the various sites, they get more money to help people and animals.

* Speaking of clicking, why not take a few minutes of your day to click on any of the care2.com sites, like Race for the Big Cats (http://bigcats.care2.com/)? Then follow the links to click on the other "Race" sites. You click, sponsors donate, and animals and kids and hungry or sick people benefit.

* The Heifer Project (http://www.heifer.org/) provides all kinds of options, low-cost to pricey, for helping people, especially women, achieve self-sufficiency through agriculture. If donating a whole (alive and kicking) heifer is beyond your budget, you can always donate chickens or ducks or all kinds of other more affordable creatures.

* Breast cancer sucks. I know - and I also know we can beat it. Please consider donating to any of the many available charities, including the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (http://www.komen.org/intradoc-cgi/idc_cgi_isapi.dll?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=407).

* Extra books or DVDs? Or videos you've replaced with DVDs? Please donate them to your local library so others can enjoy them and the library - whose budget is most likely pathetic - can make their funds go further.

* When you're at the grocery store (or Petco or wherever), please buy an extra bag of pet food or cat litter and donate it to your local shelter. And if you're lucky enough to have a no-kill shelter, let them know how much you appreciate everything they do. Also, if you've got old towels, shelters can always use them.

Thanks. You guys rock.

ETA: Also please read celticfeministw's comment below, because she has lots more terrific info on how to help your local animal shelter.

Just Another Day at the Zoo

2007-08-13T00:14:00Z

I got an A in cart-driving. Not that we really got grades, but...you know. The carts are electric and don't have anything approaching power steering, but they're fun. And they make a nice beeping in Reverse - not that that stopped one woman from walking right behind me as I went to back up. Sheesh!

Didn't have a chance to get many pictures today, just a few of the sea lions and Mr. Peacock, who's shed his tail feathers and doesn't look as purty as he used to. jenlev, I can't wait to visit and go out photographing things, because I'm finding things with this camera tend to come out darker than with my old one, and I'm not happy, so I want your advice. Meanwhile...

First, Mr. ~~Ego~~ Peacock. You can get a glimpse of his reflection in the gazing ball.

And now, a few sea lions (several of which were brightened up for your viewing pleasure - as was the peacock).

You can really see his (her?) ears in this shot, external ears being one of the three main distinguishing differences between sea lions and seals.

My, what big teeth you have.

I Forgot the Lizard!

2007-08-06T17:28:07Z

I can't believe I forgot to post this. Me = dumb. I really like this shot, too.

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

2007-08-06T04:45:12Z

I do love the cats, big and small.

I'll start with the black leopards.

There's something very surreal about this one.

Despite the line up the middle where two panes of glass join, I love this shot.

And now, tiger pics. Lots and lots of tiger pics.

And there endeth my day at the zoo.

More Beasties

2007-08-06T04:28:35Z

Let's see if I can finish up in this post or need to move on to #3. (My money's on the latter.)

I'll start with the gorillas.

Now for the smaller side of the primate family. These are Wolf's guenons.

Followed by ebony langurs.

Though blurry, I love this shot.

And then there are the squirrel monkeys. They had some very interesting enrichment items today, as you'll see.

The tapir was making funny faces today.

Since I went particularly heavy on the tiger shots today, I think I'll put the big cats in their own post.

Wild Animals I Have Known

2007-08-06T04:16:15Z

OK, I'm a whiny baby. I actually got a bunch of nice shots at the zoo today, so here come some of my faves (probably in the course of several posts).

I've posted this bird before, but he's just so full of personality, and it really shows in this shot.

I took pictures of a bunch of unusual (for me) animals today. Here's a selection from the reptile house.

I think these are the American alligators.

And the gharial, iirc. (I'm not a reptile pro yet.)

A surprisingly expressive turtle.

How about some snakes?

Or a poison dart frog?

Or maybe some some butterflies?

These koi are in the butterfly house, too.

This is a two-week-old gauer calf? Gauer are the largest species of cattle, and this little guy was just running around being adorable. (Sorry about the bar at the bottom; it's part of the monorail car.)

The Przewalski's horse was photographed from the monorail, too.

Ditto the elephants. (The second picture makes me go awwww.)

Let's finish off this post with a sea lion. I didn't do anything to the color on these shots. The variations are all due to the sun.

Coming up, gorillas, monkeys and some biiig kitties. And a tapir.

I Otter Take Fewer Pictures

2007-08-05T02:57:28Z

And now...the otters! There were five of them, the parents and three babies (who weren't tiny, tiny, unfortunately), and we were there for feeding time, so Alert and Active were the words of the day.

This is Dad, waiting for a fish.

Mom got bored after feeding time was over and just lounged on a branch.

Dad again.

Dad and one of the babies.

This is Dad on a floating plastic pipe. We saw one of them swim right through it at one point.

Awwww.

I think this is Dad again.

Animal Crackers in My Soup

2007-08-05T02:43:44Z

Last Monday I went to the Beardsley Park Zoo, the only zoo in Connecticut, with my friend Kimm and her four-year-old. It's a small zoo, and in the process of updating a lot of its exhibits as money becomes available. We had a good time, and of course I took pictures. I brightened some of these up, because I think I had the circular polarizer (which I clearly don't understand at all and plan to take off entirely) on more than I should have or wanted to. So, without further ado...

Just one turtle this time.

And one big, fuzzy bison.

I still haven't gotten a decent wolf shot, but this is the best of the bunch.

Ever wanted to get up close and personal with an iguana?

How 'bout a parrot?

For variety, it's not an animal, it's a water lily.

As a kid, I was fascinated by prairie dogs. As an adult, I still am.

And that's it for this post. I went a little crazy shooting, er, photographing the otters, so I think I'd better give them their own post.