The Monkeys taught me something new again

Even though I think I deleted all my monkey posts - so anyone new to this blog won't understand what I'm talking about - the monkeys taught me something new again today - I was at a monkey website "Jungle Friends" - a sanctuary down in the States and there was a neat Albert Schweitzer quote there:

"Ethics are complete, profound, and alive only when addressed to all living beings. Only then are we in spiritual connection with the world. Any philosophy not respecting this, not based on the indefinite totality of life, is bound to disappear."

Albert Schweitzer

It's so true, and so what I've been saying all along - that ALL animals are just like you and me. Even Mrs Dingle and Jada and Mr Betta. All sentient, living beings who deserve equal billing.

Buttercup in a fight with my new lounger

Picture #1 on my camera - the lounger I "liberated" out of someone's garbage that I want to take pictures of so I can fix it up cybernetically with my Dad's help - by taking pictures and showing them to him and replacing the rotten bits... 


Picture #2 on my camera - one of the rotten bits - but in the bottom left of the picture is Buttercup saying - "Hey! I'm not in this shot!" 


Picture #3 on my camera - "Hi there - you were ignoring me for a moment, so I thought I'd go get my beaver for you to tug on!" 


Picture #4 on my camera - "Oh yeah - I've got you now - you've forgotten ALL ABOUT this lounger I'm sitting on now!!" 


Picture #5 - I am the winner of everything I attempt! 


Picture #6 on my camera - "I am the queen of my universe!" 

Non-Dog Related - but a neat website

I was trying to find out if "Sylvia Tyson" was still alive - one of the wonderful things about the internet - and I came upon a neat website: "The Canadian Encyclopedia" - it says that it's the most comprehensive and authoritative source for all things Canadian. It also had a neat quote on it's main page (that changes each time you go to the main page) - that said - "Being Canadian has never been a nationality; it's a condition." - Peter C. Newman

Buoy Booty Find in the middle of the city!

We went walking down at the Dingle tonight and lo and behold I saw buoy booty just about a metre out from the shore at a part of the park where no one would walk because it's all walky and there's no walkway! I took some pictures that you can see below that they're toggle buoys - I think there may be a whole buoy attached to them just under the surface of the water - they may be stuck to a bunch of mussels - the harbour is just completely FULL of mussels - I guess they must thrive on raw sewage. I couldn't get to them tonight because I didn't have my rubber boots on and the rocks were really slippery because it was raining and I probably would've broken some bones trying to get to them. So I'll go back for them in the next few days with proper foot wear. Gives me something to look forward to. I can't wait. I also got a very cute picture of Buttercup tonight that I thought I'd share. I gave her a new haircut yesterday and cut the hair up around her ears - she almost looks like a jack russell now - if a jack russell had a very flouncy tail I suppose! She looks even MORE terminally cute if that's possible.


Buttercup sporting the wet look with her new haircut 


A long shot of my intended quarry... 


So close and yet so far... 

A happy ending lost dog story

I just read a happy ending lost dog story that happened down in Maine this past week that was written up on another blog that you've got to read - it's at "A Dog's Life" in the July 20th, 2005 entry - and it made me cry. Being involved with several fruitful and unfortunately fruitless searches for lost dogs - this is a truly amazing story - but also a very typical story at the same time.

It also looks like a great dog blog in itself - I haven't had time to dig in yet, but I'll do that as soon as I cut Buttercup's hair today.... she's not going to be happy.

Pure Unadulterated Joy at Conrad's Beach

Buttercup running towards me at the beach yesterday 


This was the original picture - she was running towards me at top speed - it's the most joyous sight you've ever seen. 


"You got anything in your pocket for me?" 

Mrs Dingle Died Tonight

It was awful. She's had a respiratory infection for the last few weeks and she's been on antibiotics and it seemed to have cleared up pretty much - but she's also had a new mammary tumour been growing down near her groin that's been growing a lot faster than the old one and the last few days I'd also been wondering if she was going blind because her eyes seemed to be sinking into her head a little bit and she seemed to be wandering around the cage a little bit and she didn't seem to be so interested in building her nest when I was cleaning out their cag eevery day - she was just sort of taking her naps wherever she laid down.

Today when I went in to spend time with them when I got home from work everything was fine but when I went to check on them before I was going to go to bed at 10:30 - Mrs Dingle's head was covered in blood and she was having real problems breathing and she was sneezing blood - so I wrapped her up and we went over to the Emergency Clinic - on the drive over it was obvious that her lungs were just full of blood- as we drove over I became just covered in blood, it was so sad. I didn't know that mycoplasmosis could have such an awful ending. She was in so much distress. The vet thought that maybe she had developed lung cancer? I don't know but I think it was obvious that there wasn't anything we could do to make her better at this point so we killed her. (I don't use the word euthanize). She had such a short life. But at least she only had a few hours of real discomfort - and maybe not even hours hopefully. By the amount of blood in their cage it looks like it wasn't going on for too too long before I discovered her situation.

One distressing thing is that they wouldn't let me stay with her while they killed her - their policy with "pocket pets" is that they gas them before they kill them so that they're asleep and then they kill them - and for some reason they don't want the owners to see that. So I didn't get to be there when she died. You always feel like you failed the animal in some way when you're now there when they die. Now I'll always have that guilt. Just one more piece of useless guilt to add to the mile-high pile that's there already being the good Catholic that I am, I suppose.

A couple pictures of Mrs Dingle in her prime to remind us all of how even a domestic rat is a living, breathing, beautiful creature that is as alive as you and me and hurts and feels and is scared and happy and feels better after she has a good crap and feels bewildered and alone when she is abandoned in a park in the middle of the night by the humans who had taken care of her up until that point and will therefore run up to anything else that looks like those same humans - luckily those humans happened to be a couple people driving by who knew a white rat shouldn't be in a park in the middle of the night and stopped and took her home.

I will miss you Mrs Dingle...


Mrs Dingle in her hammock


Mrs Dingle coming out for a sniff


Getting some TLC at the vet right after we found her... 


Jada saying hello to the camera when I was taking pictures.... 


The last picture I ever took of Mrs Dingle on July 5th, 2005 - still hogging all the carrots for herself. 

Daisy was being camera shy tonight

We went to Crystal Crescent beach tonight - the light there sometimes is so weird. The pictures always come out absolutely ethereal and I always have them on the same settings as everywhere else I take them. It's pretty neat. Daisy didn't want to have her picture taken tonight, but Buttercup and Charlie were being very obliging - but the deer flies were wicked - and I'm slightly allergic to them, so we kept moving. No picture that I took came out clear though because I had a headache today so I guess I must have been shaking too much to hold the camera still. Too bad because the shots would have been beautiful otherwise. Oh well... here's one of them that I took plus a picture of my buoy booty haul for the day:


Crystal Crescent tonight 


My buoy booty haul tonight... 

I Didn't know that I lived in such a "Police State"!

Paul Watson is the captain of the anti-sealing boat that was chasing around the sealers back in April. I've been super busy this week with family who are in town so I didn't read the paper on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I did read it this morning (Thursday) and there was nothing about this in there today. You'd think that police surrounding a building - for whatever reason - would make the news, wouldn't you?

I love all animals equally, I love seals - I don't want them to die inhumanely as much as I don't want cows or pigs to die inhumanely - which also is happening 365 days a year - unlike seals, which only happens for a couple weeks a year. It just seems like the proportion of froot-loops in the anti-sealing activist community seems to be rather disproportionate. This is an email Paul Watson sent out July 13th:

-----Original Message-----
From: Les, Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 08:48:06 -0700 (PDT)
------------------------------­---
From: Paul Watson [mailto:paulwat...@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 8:43 PM
Subject: My regrets but I won't be able to attend the BOD meeting.

Wanted for Conspiracy to Protect Seals


My sincere apologies but I won't be able to attend the Sierra Club Board meeting.


I arrived in Halifax today. I did some television interviews prior to giving a lecture at Dalhousie University. It was a good crowd but I noticed a number of police officers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers in the audience.

I was warned that they intended to arrest me after the lecture.

I left by a rear exit. A police officer spotted me and said, "Mr. Watson...."

He made a mistake in not identifying himself as a police officer so I was under no obligation to stop.

That's all I heard. I ducked down a stairwell of the Student Union Building. He followed. I ran down three flights of stairs and I could hear feet pounding the stairs above me. I had no idea where the stairs were leading but they brought me to the ground floor. I was outside and ran up a short flight of steps, around a corner and ducked into a pub. I went to an upper level of the pub where there was an unoccupied beverage room and watched as police surrounded the Student Union Building. They proceeded to stake out the building for three hours. I waited them out then went to my rental car and left.

I had no idea why they were intent upon arresting me. I've since discovered that the warrant is for conspiracy to disrupt the Canadian seal hunt. This stems from my taking my ship Farley Mowat into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in March and off the coast of Labrador in April.

The police know that you are expecting me at the Sierra Club Board meeting. So regrettably I cannot attend. If I do they will arrest me, transport me to Charlottetown for a bail hearing. and I will miss the meeting anyway.

Thus I am returning to the U.S.A.. I'm sorry Elizabeth but the smell of bananas here in Canada is strong. I have hurt no one. I've damaged no property. I simply documented an atrocity. My crew were violently assaulted and we video taped the assaults yet not a single charge is being laid against the sealers, yet they are putting eleven of my crew on trial for approaching a seal hunt and now they are seeking to arrest me for conspiracy to document the slaughter of seals.

It is for this reason that we are advocating a boycott of Canadian seafood products and remember there are NO sustainable oceanic species. The cod fishery has collapsed and I predicted 20 years ago that it would. I am now predicting that the snow crab fishery will collapse within two years. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans is overseeing the complete destruction of the oceanic eco-systems of the
Northwestern Atlantic ocean.

So for those of you who wish to feast on lobster, scallops, snow crabs, or fish during this meeting, remember these species are no different than the bush meat that we condemn in Africa. We are systematically hunting down and exterminating entire species of marine life - just so people can have the luxury of dining on exotic flesh.

Anyone who partakes of the flesh of these species cannot call themselves conservationists.

So I'll see you in September if I am successful in avoiding the gendarmes here in the Great White North.

On the lam in Nova Scotia.

Captain Paul Watson

Certainly I applaud him for comparing him for putting crabs and lobsters in the same category as chimpanzees and orangutans - that makes people realize that all animals are sentient beings just like us and should be treated with equal respect, but other than that - if he's in Nova Scotia right now I think he needs to go the beach and breathe in some of our nice air and just relax.

Postscript on July 24, 2005 - Silver Donald Cameron had an article in today's Chronicle Herald about this incident in an article called "Shepherd on the lam" at http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaystory?2005/07/24+122.raw+NovaScotian+2005/07/24 and they've also written up the scene further on the Sea Shepherd's website at http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_050715_1.html

Category: [Sealing]

Through Their Eyes

Horses can be ridden, they are harnessed, raced and driven
And dogs are our friends, or so we say.
But gentle cows and sheep are only good for meat
And chickens kept alive for eggs they lay.

Cats in our collection give solace and affection,
Their social graces mystify and charm.
On the farm you will find creatures of a different kind,
Their living deaths endured in darkened barn.

If piglets had their druthers they would not leave their mothers,
Nor goats forsake their kids and walk away.
Ostriches and emus would rather not be on the menu
And buffalo would roam the plains today.

It is rather a conundrum why these facts are seen as humdrum While
animals are raised in pain and fear.
They're not recognized as pets so we'll have no regrets
As they forfeit precious lives that none revere.

Cows may be labeled cattle as though they're goods and chattel And
hogs are really piggies in disguise.
Change their names, forget their faces, wipe away the traces But
remember the betrayal in their eyes.

Ann Wilson

Ann Wilson is a member of Activists Against Factory Farming

I found the neatest blog today - it's called "Animal Writings" and it's called "Essays and Musings on Animals and Society" - and it has all kinds of writings about animal welfare that are really really good. And way heavier than anything I've ever written about - MUCH preachier than me! haha! It's at http://www.animalwritings.com/

Another Sunday, Another gathering of the family

There has been family visiting from away for the last little while. Last week me and Buttercup and the rest of the family drove down to Shelburne to meet up with everyone and today we went to my parents cottage to have supper with everyone. It's very exciting when everyone gets together - especially because part of the family who's visiting include a child - the only one in our whole family at this late stage - a great grand-child to my parents. So every meeting is extra poignant because they come from so far away and our family is so small.

So we try to be on our best behaviour - there are some of us who have very bad senses of humour and others who feed us absolutely beautiful lines that are SO hard to pass up. SO hard, but for the good of the family we try. But it's hard. Anyway - here's a couple pictures from today's festivities:


Bring me a bucket! 


Have you ever seen anything this cute in your entire life? Please - I ask you? Can you deny this face anything? Especially when she's got buttercups in her hair and her name is Buttercup? 


Okay, this is also quite cute - but that may be because she is related tome by blood - but the little white dog next to her is ALSO VERY cute! The face painting came from the Lunenburg Craft Festival today 

Updating my website with some rescue stuff...

I was in updating my "Charlie loves Halifax" website this morning with some stuff that I thought I should mention here as well because I thought they were too important not to be missed.

One was that there's going to be candle light vigil in Toronto on August 28th - but there's going to be one here in Halifax too - here's what I said on my web site:

Candle Light Vigil for the Pit Bull Ban in Ontario
Location and exact time to be announced

August 29th is the date that Ontario is officially enacting it's holocaust on pit bull terriers and other bully dogs - and the dog lovers of Ontario are going to be having peaceful candle light vigils the evening before as a gathering of people and their pets to voicelessly cry out for the 1000's of dog whose lives are going to snufffed out like the candles that will be blown out at the end of the evening. Halifax will be holding a candle light vigil on the evening of August 28th in solidarity with the dog owners of Ontario - but not only in solidarity - also to voice the call to arms so that it doesn't happen here as well.

It's going to be held at 8pm on the Halifax Commons - if you love and respect your dog, regardless of his breed, make sure you come and support his brothers and sisters in Ontario on August 28th. The blood that's going to be running from the shelters as people realize how hard life has become for them and their dogs as the draconian law has come into effect and they dump their supposed lifetime canine companion onto someone else's shoulders is going to be unimagineable.

So you'll have to stay tuned for more information about that as we find out about it...

I also put a new picture of Buttercup on my shopping page this morning with a link to a website where you can buy the bracelets - the link to the website where you can buy the bracelets is: http://www.gearthatgives.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDStore.woa/85/wa/product?siteID=310&itemID=26646&origin=29948 - it's impossible to take a bad picture of Buttercup, isn't it?


Buttercup relaxing with my man-hand... 

The bracelet came from the "Animal Rescue site" where you can click and feed hungry dogs - you can also feed hungry humans if you want too.

Mrs Dingle is sick

We're coming up on the one year anniversary of finding Mrs Dingle abandoned down at the Dingle - it was last July 17th, 2004 - that she ran across the road as we were driving through the Dingle Park in the night time (my friend lives inside the Dingle park) and we knew that what ran across the road was NOT a wild rat so we stopped the car and she came right up to us and there was no way we could leave her behind for a fox or dog to catch and eat her.

Since that time I've learned a ton about domestic rats and have fallen in love with the species - and most specifically in love with Mrs Dingle and her cage mate Jada who I got from Pebbles rat rescue to be her companion. When they die though I don't think I'll replace them because dogs are my companions of choice and even though Jada and Mrs Dingle get time outside their cage - and they are very happy with their world I've created inside their cage - rats are neat, but they aren't a passion for me.

And now Mrs Dingle has suddenly developed an overnight huge new lump on her belly. It's grown since Sunday down near her groin - she's also got this thing called "mycoplasmosis" which she's had since I've had her - and it's acting up this week too - she's sneezing a lot, and she's got porphyrin literally dripping out of her right eye - you can see it in the picture below - it looks like she's bleeding out of her eye, it's pretty gross.

So we're going to the vet tomorrow. Her health has been awful since the day the I found her - Jada has been the picture of health from day one - they are yin and yang - Mrs Dingle is so loving and lets you carry her around and is actually like a pet and is always on the verge on dying and Jada is the picture of health and is as wild as you can imagine - always trying to escape the cage they're in, and not letting me pick her up or anything - but she IS mellowing a bit with age. But she's been an excellent companion for Mrs Dingle - so that's what she was meant to be.

Below is a picture I took last night - Mrs Dingle isn't very happy right now - but she doesn't feel so bad that she can't still hog all the carrots when I put them in the cage!


Mrs Dingle isn't very happy - but she's STILL hogging the carrots! 

Buttercup and Me (and the hooman family) took a trip to Shelburne today

We had a bit of family reunion down in Shelburne today. I only took Buttercup with me - it was a great day though - I got to see some family, I got to go to Frenchies, I got to drive the parents car for a minute and I also got some buoy booty from right across the street from my brothers house - that was a SUPER find!!!

Here's some pictures from the day:


Just about the whole family 


Another section of the family - my little niece Hannah from Portland Oregon! 


Buttercup catching some zzzz's in the foliage 


A picture of a lobster trap with my brother's house also in it! haha!