Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Category: Photography
In memory of a very beautiful dog: Hazel.
(Must admit that when I was posting last week’s picture parade I had no idea that today’s would be in memory of Hazel. The lesson of always trying to live in the present!)
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And I shall close today’s picture parade with the photograph I included in yesterday’s eulogy. For more than any other photograph this one has the camera looking deep into Hazel’s soul.
The final pictures from the PetSmart Pet Adoption Event.
Back on the 29th May when I published the first set of pictures from this event I wrote in that post:
I wrote about this last Tuesday under the heading of Helping Hands and warned you that today and next Sunday would be picture parades of that event.
At that time I had not cottoned on to the fact that the next Sunday, i.e. a week ago, the picture parade would be devoted to Pharaoh’s birthday.
So here we are with that next set of pictures from the PetSmart Adoption Event. Again, I wrote first about this under the heading of Helping Hands. For those that didn’t read that post here is how it opened:
The PetSmart Pet Adoption Event.
Over the days of the 13th to 15th May, in other words roughly a week-and-a-half ago, a number of pet adoption charities in Northern California and Southern Oregon came together courtesy of PetSmart in Medford, Oregon to find new homes for unadopted dogs and cats.
I came to hear about this from an email sent to me by Tammy Moore of the organisation Shelter Friends. Tammy also c.c.’d her email to Tana Mason who is Fundraising Coordinator for the charity. Tammy’s email was an invite for me, and Jean, to attend the event on the Saturday as the author of my book.
The first Picture Parade of these photographs was presented here.
Here is that final set of photographs.
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… and closing the set with the evidence that new homes were found for many dogs and cats.
Well done to one and all!
Three stunning photographs of wolves.
In my post yesterday, A Eulogy for OR-4, I republished a passionate and moving account by Rob Klavins of the killing of a magnificent wolf. It included these words:
He escaped kill orders and poachers. He endured at least 4 collarings and he beat the odds. There aren’t many ten year old wolves out there. Today there is one less.
OR4 was shot and killed today. And it hurts. Anyone celebrating his death, the killing of his likely pregnant partner, and two of his pups, must have a hardened heart indeed.
All I am offering for you today is the contents of a recent email that I received from the Endangered Species Coalition.
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Paul,
We are excited to announce the winning entries in our first-ever Wolves in the Wild photo contest! While we received many beautiful photos of gray wolves, the difficult task of choosing winning submissions was carried out with much deliberation by our panel of judges.
The Grand Prize winner is:
Runner ups are:
We are enormously grateful to everyone who participated! Your photos were all amazing and I assure you that choosing a winner was a difficult task for the judges. While the contest was fun, we hope the photos will serve a very serious purpose in helping to show decision makers in the Pacific Northwest that wolves are important not only for their role in a healthy ecosystem, but as a driver of tourism and associated economic benefits.
Thank you for your commitment to disappearing wildlife and wild places.
Sincerely,
Danielle Moser
Pacific Northwest Wolf Organizer
Endangered Species Coalition
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Let me just repeat that key sentence from Danielle, “While the contest was fun, we hope the photos will serve a very serious purpose in helping to show decision makers in the Pacific Northwest that wolves are important not only for their role in a healthy ecosystem, but as a driver of tourism and associated economic benefits.”
Exactly!
This is where our solace is.
Jean and I are members of the Oregon Wild organisation. As their home page states:
Oregon Wild supporters help us protect and restore our wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.
In their last Newsletter (Volume 43, Number 2) there was a heart-breaking item about the killing of a wild wolf. I asked them if I might have permission to republish that and it was promptly granted.
Then early yesterday morning, around 7am, the early morning sunlight picked up two deer, a young stag and a doe, who had come to feed on the molasses cob that we put out twice a day.
I grabbed my camera and went quietly out to where they were feeding. Although both creatures were familiar to Jean and me, and they are not too uncomfortable with us out there putting cob down, this time my different behaviour and especially the cold, dark ‘eye’ of the camera lens made the two deer pretty twitchy.
So I’m putting off the sad eulogy of the shot wolf until tomorrow and offering up the magic of being trusted by these beautiful creatures.
See you tomorrow and the sad story of wolf OR-4
My second day of celebrating thirteen years of Pharaoh’s life.
The first day’s worth of pictures was yesterday. (And so many Happy Birthday greetings from you! Thanks everyone.)
Pharaoh was thirteen years old yesterday.
Yes, Pharaoh was born on June 3rd., 2003 in Devon, South-West England close to where I was living at that time.
I deliberately didn’t mention it yesterday as I wanted to devote both days this weekend in celebration of this wonderful doggy friend.
So rather than write reams about this wonderful relationship that I have had with Pharaoh all I am going to do both today and tomorrow is to share with you a few memories of these fantastic years.
Hope you can return tomorrow for my usual Picture Parade as it will be exclusively more photographs of Pharoah.
The Bricklayer and the Penguin.
The following glorious story, a true story I should have made clear, was sent to me recently by Cynthia, wife of my long-term Californian friend Dan Gomez. It’s a story that was broadcast by TV Globo, not a station I had previously heard of. Unsurprising really when a quick web search finds their details:
Rede Globo, or simply Globo, is a Brazilian television network, launched by media mogul Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo, being by far the largest of its holdings.
Here’s that story.
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This penguin swims 5,000 miles every year for a reunion with the man who saved his life.
Todays most heartwarming story is brought to you from a beach in Brazil. The story of a South American Magellanic penguin who swims 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.
Retired bricklayer and part time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, who lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , found the tiny penguin, covered in oil and close to death, lying on rocks on his local beach in 2011. Joao cleaned the oil off the penguin’s feathers and fed him a daily diet of fish to build his strength. He named him Dindim.
After a week, he tried to release the penguin back into the sea. But, the bird wouldn’t leave.
He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared, Joao recalls. And, just a few months later, Dindim was back. The penguin spotted the fisherman on the beach one day and followed him home.
For the past five years, Dindim has spent eight months of the year with Joao and is believed to spend the rest of the time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile. It is thought he swims up to 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.
I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me, Joao told Globo TV. No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.
Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years. He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February and every year he becomes more affectionate as he appears even happier to see me.
Biologist Professor Krajewski, who interviewed the fisherman for Globo TV, told The Independent: “I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well. When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.”
And, just like that, the world seems a kinder place again.
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Unsurprisingly there are numerous videos of Joao and Dindim to be found on YouTube but I have selected the following one for you.
It’s wonderful how our worries about the nature of us humans can be swept away just as easily as an ocean wave breaking on a beach near an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro.
More pictures of our local Pet Adoption Event.
I wrote about this last Tuesday under the heading of Helping Hands and warned you that today and next Sunday would be picture parades of that event. For those that didn’t get to read that post here is how it opened:
The PetSmart Pet Adoption Event.
Over the days of the 13th to 15th May, in other words roughly a week-and-a-half ago, a number of pet adoption charities in Northern California and Southern Oregon came together courtesy of PetSmart in Medford, Oregon to find new homes for unadopted dogs and cats.
So, more pictures from the day (and my apologies for not noting names and details of each picture).
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Do hope you can handle a further selection of these event photographs in a week’s time! My motivation is to give everyone concerned a bit of a special focus for they did so well.
The PetSmart Pet Adoption Event.
Over the days of the 13th to 15th May, in other words roughly a week-and-a-half ago, a number of pet adoption charities in Northern California and Southern Oregon came together courtesy of PetSmart in Medford, Oregon to find new homes for unadopted dogs and cats.
I came to hear about this from an email sent to me by Tammy Moore of the organisation Shelter Friends. Tammy also c.c.’d her email to Tana Mason who is Fundraising Coordinator for the charity. Tammy’s email was an invite for me, and Jean, to attend the event on the Saturday as the author of my book.
(I would have written about the event before now but many of you will recall that was the weekend when my internet connection was down for a number of days.)
Anyway, that Saturday started off rather damp and grey but all the pet charities had previously been set up for the Friday.
But soon Jean and I had our own stand all ready for the opening time for the event and we were very grateful for being offered a table position just inside the main entrance door.
People soon started arriving and all were very friendly.
I shall continue with the photographs of the day over the next two picture parades.
But let me leave you with the results of all the fine people involved, both volunteers and the great staff at PetSmart.
In the words of Tana in answer to my question of how many animals were found homes:
I have the total for all three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 9 puppies, 9 dogs and 14 cats!
I am not sure if this is a complete list of all the shelters that attended but certainly the following wonderful charities did:
Shelter Friends, Grants Pass, OR
Friends of Animals, Brookings, OR
Goliath Mountain Rescue, Yreka, CA
Rescue Ranch, Yreka, CA
Curry County Animal Shelter, Gold Beach, OR
So many helping hands!
More Spring is Sprung.
(Continuing the thanks to Dordie for sending these to me.)
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If you missed the first set then they may be viewed here.
Learning from Dogs 