Tag: Michigan

This heat wave

It has broken records here in Southern Oregon.

We had a high of 112 deg F. (44.4 deg C.) here in Merlin on the 27th June, 2021. That is hot in anyone’s language.

Fortunately first thing in the morning it was cooler, down in the low 60’s (F), and our dogs were alright with that. But in the afternoon it was too hot for them.

So it seemed like a good idea to republish an article from The Dodo about walking your dog in this heat.

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How Hot Is Too Hot To Walk My Dog?

How to keep those little paws safe 🐾

By DANIELLE ESPOSITO

Published on the 20th August, 2020

Have you ever felt like it was just too hot outside to walk your dog?

To make sure you’re keeping your dog safe — and his paws free from burns or irritation — it’s important to know how to tell when it actually is too dangerous to take your dog on a walk.

The Dodo spoke to Dr. Jessica Romine, a veterinarian at BluePearl Pet Hospital in Southfield, Michigan, to get some answers and tips to make sure your walks are always safe — and fun — for you and your pup.

How to test if it’s too hot out to walk your dog

According to Dr. Romine, there’s a simple test you can do to check if it’s too hot out to walk — and all you need is your hand.

“A good rule of thumb is to place your hand on the sidewalk or asphalt for 5 seconds; if it becomes uncomfortable to the touch, it is probably also uncomfortable for your dog to walk on,” Dr. Romine told The Dodo.

Signs your dog is uncomfortable

If you do need to take a walk on a hot day — or if it starts to heat up after you’ve already left home — keep a close eye on your pup.

“Dogs can suffer burns from very hot surfaces, usually in direct sunlight,” Dr. Romine said.

Signs to look out for include your dog starting to slow down or limp, or not wanting to keep walking.

If this happens, Dr. Romine recommends “checking their paw pads for tenderness, redness, or erosions and try[ing] to get them into the grass or at least shade.”

Tips for walking your dog in the heat

If you live in an area where hot concrete is unavoidable, you can try a paw wax to protect your pup’s paws. If you’d like to try one, Musher’s Secret Paw Wax is highly recommended by one of The Dodo’s editors, who uses it on her own pup.

“If you dog tolerates them, they are a fine option,” Dr. Romine said about protective products, “but remember that prolonged contact can still cause damage, and dogs still need to be monitored for signs of overheating.”

So in general, try to stick to the grass or at least the shade on your summer walks — and going out in the morning or evenings, when most surfaces aren’t in direct sun, will be much more comfortable for your dog.

(We independently pick all the products we recommend because we love them and think you will too. If you buy a product from a link on our site, we may earn a commission.)

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I must say that is a good piece of advice about placing one’s hand on the sidewalk.

We are lucky here because there is only grass to play on but not everyone is so fortunate.

Our dear Brandy!

Picture Parade Three Hundred and Eight

Well it’s not a true picture parade but nonetheless it’s lovely.

Taken from here.

Photo Credit: Laurenda Marie Photography

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Photo Credit: Laurenda Marie Photography

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Photo Credit: Laurenda Marie Photography

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Photo Credit: YouTube/Patrick Helleng

Wild Deer Crashes Wedding Shoot To Eat The Bride’s Bouquet

Wedding crashers aren’t usually a good thing. But for one Michigan couple, an uninvited guest made the day even more special.

Morgan and Luke were celebrating their nuptials on the Felt Estate, in Saugatuck, Michigan, when photographer Laurenda Marie Bennett stole the couple away for “golden hour portraits.”

“We walked over this hill and made it to a field where we saw just over a wooden fence was a deer,” Bennett told The Dodo. “As soon as we arrived, the deer looked up and just casually walked over to the bride and groom.”

The friendly deer greeted the couple and quickly spotted the bride’s bouquet. The spray of flowers was too tempting for the deer to resist.

“[He] started reaching his neck over and grabbing flowers from her bouquet and just chewing away,” Bennett said. “Then he steps over the fence so he’s standing in front of them, and he’s just hanging out eating her bouquet.”

After the initial shock of the wildlife encounter wore off, Bennett started snapping photos of the bride and groom. “We were all kind of giggling and looking at each other like, ‘What’s going on? What should we do?’” Bennett said. “Morgan’s expressions were priceless — they just kind of made the photos.”

As it turned out, this specific deer is a bit of a celebrity in the area. He’s even made it to the news for photobombing a few engagement photo shoots earlier this summer.

“Never in a million years did I think I’d run into him, especially when photographing a wedding,” Bennett said. “I felt like it was meant to be.”

The deer would stop at nothing to get the flowers, so the bride eventually decided to give the hungry animal her bouquet. She had to borrow one of the bridesmaids’ arrangements for the bouquet toss — but it was worth it for the hilarious photobomb.

Videographer Patrick Hellenga, of Patrick James Films, was also on-site to capture the sweet encounter on film.

When the couple returned to the field later that night, they found that the deer had left something behind for the bride — a little wedding gift.

“When we walked back to the area where we dropped the bouquet, the deer was gone but there was one white rose still intact,” Bennett said. “She picked it up and joked, ‘It’s the final rose.’”

That’s a lovely story!

 

Beam me up, Scotty.

Just had to share this with you!

This is a remarkable photograph. Something I have never seen.

Anyway, here’s the story behind it!

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Otherworldly light pillars captured over Whitefish Bay

MICHAEL D’ESTRIES,   November 2, 2018

Light pillars over Whitefish Bay on the shore of Lake Superior as captured by nocturnal photographer Vincent Brady. (Photo: Vincent Brady)

At first glance, the mesmerizing light display that occurred on Oct. 16 over Whitefish Bay, Michigan, had all the hallmarks of a visual effect from a science-fiction film. Instead of “first contact,” however, this beautiful shimmer is actually a fairly common optical phenomenon called a light pillar.

Light pillars form when sources of light from the ground, sun or even the moon interact with horizontal concentrations of ice crystals in the atmosphere. When viewed from a distance, these crystals align in such a way as to create the optical illusion of a dazzling pillar of light.

Photographer Vincent Brady, who specializes in capturing nocturnal scenes, said in a Facebook post that he was “pleasantly surprised” to come across the phenomenon.

“This is a shot north of Paradise, MI looking east over Whitefish Bay,” he wrote. “The red lights are around the Canadian island Ile Parisienne. I’m not entirely sure of the artificial light source of the pillars.”

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Astounding!

Anyone else seen these?

A complex relationship

Slowly getting back to normal!

And posts like this help.

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Wolves on Michigan’s Isle Royale reveal new info about predator-prey relationships

This we know: Top carnivores profoundly influence local ecosystems.

By STARRE VARTAN  October 26, 2018.

Dawn breaks over Moskey Basin, at Isle Royale National Park, Michigan. Canadian wolves colonized the island in 1949. (Photo: Steve Lagreca/Shutterstock)

The American people’s relationship with top predators — especially wolves — is complex and ever-evolving. About three decades ago, it was mostly just animal-rights groups and their supporters who fought for the wolves’ right to exist; they were often considered a nuisance. But now there’s plenty of scientific evidence proving what’s good for wolves is good for their prey, the plants those prey eat, and indeed, positively affects the entire ecosystem. That’s ultimately good for humans too — unless you’re competing with the wolves, like a rancher who grazes animals or a hunter who wants to shoot the same deer or moose that wolves need to eat. But at this point, even some ranchers and hunters have come over to the pro-predator side.

Much of that change in the perception of predators is down to studies that have proven how precisely cougars, wolves, bears, tigers, lions, bald eagles, alligators and other apex predators affect the land around them. None have been studied longer than the wolves and moose in Isle Royale National Park, a Guam-sized island in Lake Superior. For almost 60 years, the populations of these two groups have been tracked — as well as their effects on the plants and other animal communities on the island. (You can read the reports here, including the recent 59th annual report.)

As the video above explains, there used to be as many as 50 wolves on Isle Royale; however, that number has dwindled, mostly due to inbreeding that caused a debilitating spinal condition to proliferate among the too-closely-related wolves. Just 10 years ago, there were still around 30 wolves but by 2015, there were only three wolves left. Now, there are just two, a closely related male-female pair that probably won’t breed. (The female of the pair has aggressively fought back when the male attempted to breed with her.)

Already, the moose population on the island has boomed, “undoubtably because of lack of predation,” John Vucetich, a wildlife ecologist from Michigan Technological University told Science magazine, adding that the two remaining wolves are now “… swimming in moose.” Despite the wolves’ regular predation on moose, there’s been a 20 percent increase in moose in just one year, which scientists estimate is about five to 10 times higher than on mainland areas. Beaver populations have also risen sharply. There’s just not enough wolves to keep either population in check.

So what’s so bad about so many moose? Well, as most ungulates do, moose spend their days browsing on vegetation, so the more moose, the more food they need — and the plants on the island can only take so much nibbling. An aquatic plant, which was found in abundance just six years ago, is now only found in places where moose are not. Long-term, this means the island will soon run out of food to keep the ever-larger moose population alive, and many will starve once food becomes scarce. Previously, the wolves have kept moose populations low enough so they didn’t overeat the vegetation, keeping the system in balance.

A plan to rebalance the ecosystem

This female wolf arrived at Isle Royale on Oct. 2, 2018. (Photo: NPS/Jim Peaco)

This is why some people think the best solution is to bring a fresh influx of wolves to Isle Royale National Park. The plan is to release 25-30 wolves over the next three to five years. So far, park officials have trapped four wolves on the mainland beginning in late September and released them on the island. Three of the wolves are female — with the hope they will successfully breed.

This new blood would potentially rebalance the predator-prey relationship and the idea is that the rest of the ecosystem would follow. Introducing so many wolves over several years is hardly natural either, others argue, saying that humans should just be hands off and let nature take its course. The original 50 wolves had found their way to the island on their own, having moved in from Canada; perhaps they could do so again if given the chance.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated since it was originally published in April 2017.

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This is the real news!

Change is never easy ….

… but change is also the one constant in life.

For every one of us there is no escaping change.  It’s always been been that way; always will be.

Today, however, there’s an additional unsettling element.  I’m speaking of the growing realisation that humanity could be facing the perfect storm.  The ultimate storm of runaway climate change and the collapse of our global economy.

Therefore, when one comes across the wind of common-sense it needs to be promoted.  My reason for promoting the opening speech by Jennifer Granholm at the TED2013 conference.

Because if we are to find a way of avoiding this storm, we have to do it through innovative ways of thinking and behaving.  Each and every one of us deciding to work for a better future. (And see my P.S.)

P.S.

Back in the days of dogs living as coherent packs, one of the key roles of the alpha dog was to decide a change of territory.  Then she, because the alpha dog was always a female, would lead the pack to a better place.

So we should learn from our ancient furry friends and take personal responsibility to find a ‘better’ place for ourselves and all our loved ones.