Smaller creatures taking a break!Larger creatures taking a break!
See what the coming week has in store! (Oh, we live in Josephine County!)
FLOOD WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEDFORD OR
151 PM PST SAT JAN 7 2017
...HEAVY RAIN WILL COMBINE WITH MELTING SNOW TO CAUSE POSSIBLE
LOCAL FLOODING LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY...
.ANOTHER FRONT MOVES INTO THE REGION LATE TONIGHT WITH MODERATE
TO HEAVY RAINFALL RATES. SNOW LEVELS WILL RISE WELL ABOVE THE
VALLEY FLOORS AND WILL COMBINE WITH SNOW MELT TO INCREASE RUN-OFF
THROUGH THE DAY SUNDAY AND INTO SUNDAY NIGHT.
...FLOOD WATCH NOW IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY
EVENING...
THE FLOOD WATCH IS NOW IN EFFECT FOR
* PORTIONS OF THE COOS AND CURRY COUNTY COASTS...EASTERN CURRY
AND JOSEPHINE COUNTY IN OREGON...AND WESTERN SISKIYOU COUNTY IN
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
* FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING.
* 1 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN...WITH HIGHEST AMOUNTS NEAR THE COAST AND
LOWEST NEAR GRANTS PASS...ARE EXPECTED ON SUNDAY. THIS MODERATE
TO HEAVY RAIN COMBINED WITH SNOW MELT MAY CAUSE URBAN AND SMALL
STREAM FLOODING. CURRY AND JOSEPHINE COUNTIES ARE THE PRIMARY
AREAS OF CONCERN...HOWEVER...PORTIONS OF WESTERN SISKIYOU COUNTY
MAY SEE LOCALIZED FLOODING AS WELL.
* RECENT BROKEN BRANCHES AND OTHER DEBRIS FROM THE HEAVY SNOW
COMBINED WITH ICE MAY CLOG STORM DRAINS AND CULVERTS IN THE
WATCH AREA. HEAVY RAIN MAY ALSO CAUSE SLIDES OR DEBRIS FLOWS ON
THE GAP WILDFIRE BURN SCAR NEAR HORSE CREEK...POSSIBLY REACHING
HIGHWAY 96 BELOW THE BURN SCAR.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
LANDSLIDES AND DEBRIS FLOWS ARE POSSIBLE DURING THIS FLOOD EVENT.
PEOPLE...STRUCTURES AND ROADS LOCATED BELOW STEEP SLOPES...IN
CANYONS AND NEAR THE MOUTHS OF CANYONS MAY BE A SERIOUS RISK FROM
RAPIDLY MOVING LANDSLIDES. A FLOOD WATCH MEANS THERE IS A
POTENTIAL FOR FLOODING BASED ON CURRENT FORECASTS.
Slowly getting back to normal although yesterday morning saw the water supply fail from the well. (Now restored!) Perhaps not surprising as overnight Thursday-through-Friday the outside temperature went down to 8.6 deg. F. or in ‘new money’ -13 deg. C. (In fact I’m writing this at 10am yesterday waiting for the well engineer to arrive!)
On January 4th, the Care2 site published what has to be one of the most remarkable examples of the loyalty of a dog. This is about as perfect an example of what we humans can learn from our dogs as it gets!
ooOOoo
Loyal Dog Protects Buddy Stuck on Tracks From Speeding Train
If you’ve ever had the slightest doubt about just how loyal dogs can be – not only to people but to other dogs – a pup who’s been named Panda really proved it on Christmas Day.
Panda and his pal, now named Lucy, apparently escaped from their home in western Ukraine and somehow ended up on railroad tracks in the town of Uzhhorod. Lucy had an injury and was unable to stand or move. Panda remained right by her side, warming her with his body in the freezing cold.
A train engineer contacted a group of animal rescue volunteers including Denis Malafeyev, telling them he’d seen the dogs on the tracks for two days. Malafeyev and the others took off to try to save them.
“I saw a train approaching and felt sick,” he wrote on Facebook. “The male dog heard the sound of the approaching train, came close to the female dog and laid down next to her. Both of them pushed their heads toward the ground and let the train pass.”
A viral video Malafeyev posted shows the dogs being run over by the speeding train. It’s chilling to think that this wasn’t the first time this happened to the dogs.
The video is disturbing and difficult to watch, but amazingly, both dogs survived with just minor injuries. It may also seem disturbing that, knowing a train would be approaching, Malafeyev didn’t put down his camera and save the dogs. He wrote in his Facebook post that he and the group had tried, unsuccessfully, to move them, but Panda would bark at them and refuse to let them get close to Lucy.
“Think about it. He was keeping her warm,” Malafeyev wrote. ” I don’t know what to call this: instinct, love, friendship, loyalty? One thing I know for sure is that not all people would do the same as this dog!”
The video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, with many commenters agreeing with Malafeyev that humans have a lot to learn from this dog.
Four days later, Malafeyev posted new videos of Panda and Lucy on Facebook. The dogs were taken to an animal shelter and have been reunited their owners, UPI reports. (There are conflicting reports that the dogs were adopted and given the names Panda and Lucy by their new owners. Either way, the two dogs are in a forever home together.)
I am going to close this post by including another YouTube video of this incredible act together with the text supporting this video.
Incredible Story of Devotion Dog! 2017
Published on Jan 4, 2017
Incredible Story of Devotion Dog! The dog two days guarded wounded friend on the rails!
On Sunday, December 25 near the village of Uzhgorod in the district of Tyyglash a touching story took place in Ukraine. Two dogs spent about two days on the tracks, one of them was injured, and the other kept the injured dog warmed and protected from the passing trains.
The story was posted on his page on facebook user Denis Malafeev. His friends noticed two dogs lying on the tracks, one of them was injured. Later, the man himself arrived on the scene.
Several attempts to remove the animal from the rails were in vain, because the dog strongly defended her friend from the people!
When the animals heard an approaching train, the healthy dog lay next to a wounded dog and together they were pressed to the ground between the rails. This moment Malafeev managed to capture on video.
The dog did it for two days in a row! Just think! He warmed it for two days, so that it did not freeze and put himself in danger every time! I do not know how to call it: the instinct, love, friendship, loyalty? It is instructive for us!
Together with his friends, they took dogs and took them to the shelter. The Post reports that they are now waiting for their owners.
P.S. Shortly after the publication in social networks there were dog owners. It was learned that the Pandas and Lucy – so call the animals – there are no serious injuries, only bruises and hematomas. I found out that shaggy live in the home side’s S. Tseglovka in Transcarpathia for several years and are committed to each other from puppyhood. Dogs run away from home when someone from the house forgot to close the door on the site. They searched all over the village. But when the owners heard the story of “Romeo and Juliet” on track – immediately rushed to pick up pets from the shelter. Now dogs are at home, and their life is not threatened.
For two days that one dog protected the other. It is beyond imagination to think how frightening a speeding train would have been for those two precious dogs. Not just once but numerous times before rescue came to them.
Such a privilege to be able to share this with you.
A little over an hour-and-a-half ago, at 1pm PST, the power was restored.
The first task was to see if the water pipes coming from the well had been frozen last night because the outside temperature went down to -8 C./18 deg F. Luckily they had not. However tonight they are forecast to drop to -10 C./14 F. So before coming in to see if the internet was restored the number one task was to run a power cord to the well house and leave a 25 watt old-fashioned lamp down near the water pipes.
Ten minutes ago I turned on my AppleMac and, hey presto, we are connected to that big, virtual world.
Then a quick download of my Gmail to discover that I have 17,262 unread emails awaiting me! (Sorry, I was just showing off. There’s no way that I am that popular!!)
However, the last three digits are correct: there are 262 unread emails.
So I trust you will understand why there will not be a ‘proper’ post at midnight PST, as per normal, but hopefully if everything holds up (including yours truly) then blogging should be back to the regular daily pattern come next Saturday.
Oh, by the way, the forecast for this weekend includes a risk of flooding. Medford National Weather Service have published a hydrological warning.
HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEDFORD, OR
333 AM PST THU JAN 5 2017
...Flood Potential Outlook for quick rises and possible flooding
due to heavy rain and snow melt on creeks, streams, and rivers in
the following counties in California...Modoc...Siskiyou and in
Oregon...Coos...Curry...Douglas...Jackson...Josephine...
.A series of frontal systems will move through the area this weekend
through next week. The combination of recent heavy snowfall, rising
snow levels, and periods of heavy rainfall will lead to run-off
concerns beginning Sunday and continuing through early next week.
An initial round of heavy rainfall this weekend will saturate low
elevation snow pack leading to increased run-off. A second round of
heavy rain Tuesday through Thursday will lead to another period of
substantial run-off next week.
We woke yesterday on the first day of the New Year to a classic Winter’s scene: Snow!
Ben and Ranger enjoying a winter’s breakfast.
Not long after we were washed and dressed I let the dogs out. Typically, while all of them were quick to return to the warmth of the house, Brandy went off on one of his ‘walkabouts’. It was probably the first time he had seen snow.
Twenty minutes later, I started walking down our driveway (just visible in the photograph above running alongside the far tree line) because I knew that Brandy had walked down to the (closed) front gate to check everything out.
I saw Brandy coming back up the driveway and called to him. He looked up, wagged his tail, and I then crouched down holding my arms apart. Brandy started a wonderful, bouncy run that continued until he came right up to me and he then buried his wonderful, furry head between my thighs.
We walked together back to the house and went inside. As we walked together I was aware of a feeling of joyous happiness, a magic that was flowing from the way that Brandy chose to relate to me.
It really did make my heart sing and as I write these words some three hours later I hope you can pick up the gift of goodness that dogs, and so many other animals, offer us humans.
On his way to a call Dec. 17, Deputy Brian Bowling came across a dog stumbling down the middle of an Arizona road.
The pit bull mix named Ginger had been shot in the head by a neighbor who said he felt threatened after the dog dug a hole under her backyard’s fence and wandered into his yard.
Ginger was alive, but not for long.
“She was bleeding profusely from her head and neck,” Bowling told ABC15. In addition to being a deputy with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Bowling also happens to be a trained paramedic and a veteran who served in Afghanistan. He knew he had to act quickly.
“I had a little flashback, because we had seen military working dogs over there who were blown up by IEDs and shot, and that’s what went through my head,” he told ABC15. “I thought I had to do anything to save its life.”
When he approached Ginger to move her out of traffic, Bowling wasn’t sure how the injured dog would react. “But instead of running away from me or trying to bite me, she ran right up to me and started wagging her tail,” he told FOX 10. She then tried to climb up into the driver’s seat of his patrol car.
Bowling applied combat gauze to her wound, helping to stop the bleeding, and rushed her to a local emergency animal hospital.
His quick actions saved Ginger’s life. She was also fortunate that the bullet bounced off her skull instead of penetrating it.
Ginger and her hero, Deputy Brian Bowling. Photo credit: YouTube
Foster Mom Couldn’t Afford the Surgery
But Ginger’s luck seemed to be running out. When her foster mom, Hailey Miller, was told Ginger still needed surgery that would cost thousands of dollars, she made the difficult decision to have the dog euthanized. “If I had [the money], I wouldn’t even hesitate,” she told ABC 15.
Just as Bowling had saved Ginger from dying in the middle of the road, he decided he would save her from being put down.
“It just didn’t seem right for a dog that survived so much to die because the owner didn’t have the money to pay for it,” he told ABC15. He paid for her surgery himself, putting it on his credit card.
“If this man has this kind of empathy and love for a dog, imagine what he has for people and the rest of the world,” she told ABC 15. “There is such a lesson that can be learned from him.”
Ginger is recovering, Miller wrote on Facebook. She’s now able to walk and eat, and is “so sweet as usual.”
To reimburse Bowling, Miller has launched a GoFundMe campaign that has raised over $6,000.
“It is my Christmas wish that with the help of all animal lovers around the world, I can pay this deputy back,” Miller wrote. “Any remaining funds will go toward law enforcement charities, animal rescues and future rescue dogs that are always coming through my rotating door. Of course the officer will be involved in choosing these charities!”
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Learning from Dogs 