Good News, Because We Need Some

It's time to talk about something happy, but i don't have the picture.

See, i'm used to taking pics with my phone, and then text messaging them to my tablet, then putting them in my picture album, then getting them on here.  Yes, it's probably a round-about way, but it works for me.  Until now.

As of day before yesterday, my phone will no longer send photos, and i have no clue why.  It might just be me, it might be a left over problem from when we had no service at all last Sunday.  It may be that the "repaired" AT&T equipment will send regular texts but not photos.

More likely it's just me.

Either way, i had a picture to show, a happy picture.  Instead, i will describe it.  Imagine a picture of a white board, on the wall at the cat shelter, over the caretaker cart.  The white board is divided into two large sections and one small section by red lines.  The small section is cats that are in the "foster to adopt" program.  One of the large areas says "July" and has a list of all cats adopted out in July.

The other large section has the heading of "August" with names of cats adopted this month.  Under the names, in large, red letters, it says, "Countdown to 10,000th Adoption" and, next to one of those names in blue is a large #10,000!

Yes, Kurlik, who was renamed Gilligan by his adoptive family, was our 10,000th cat adopted out.

Yesterday, while i was doing the usual Friday evening routine, there was a couple browsing the cages, looking to bring home a new kitten.  Even in the midst of our troubles here, people who can are adopting cats.

There is a huge temporary shelter at a local expo center, and people are being reunited with their pets.  One large parish (county) shelter was taking on water over the weekend and sent out a call for help on Facebook.  Every single animal in the shelter was taken into a foster home by a family that was not in danger of flooding.

In all of this, rescue work goes on, and people are stepping up.


Today is:

Antique Marine Engine Exposition -- Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, US (annual exposition of pre-WWII marine engines and models; through tomorrow)

Bad Hair Day -- birth anniversary of Don King

Bike Van Buren -- Van Buren County, IA, US (a leisurely two-day bike tour of villages, landmarks and landscapes)

Birth of the White Buffalo -- Lakota Native American rituals honoring the birth of the White Buffalo in 1994, signaling the return of the White Buffalo Woman (manifestation of the Star Goddess Wohpe), who gave them the sacred peace pipe

Boil Over Thursday -- Fairy Calendar (sometimes on Thursday, most often not)

Dial the Phone Day -- the first rotary dial phone patent was applied for by A. E. Keith, John Erickson, and Charles Erickson on this day in 1896

Feast of Asma -- Baha'i

Ferret Buckeye Bash -- Colombus, OH, US (ferret show)

Independence From USSR Day -- Estonia

International Geocaching Day

International Homeless Animals Day® -- International Society for Animal Rights

Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon -- Leadville, CO, US (race 100 of the toughest miles in the country through the Rocky Mountains beginning at 4am; you have 30 hours to complete the course to the ghost town of Winfield and back)

Lemonade Day

Minnesota Renaissance Festival -- Shakopee, MN, US (one of the countries largest and finest; weekends through the beginning of October)

Moon's Birthday -- Aztec Calendar (according to some websites, but i haven't confirmed it; if you want something to celebrate, this is as good as anything else)

Mt. Hagen Cultural Show -- Mt. Hagen, Papua New Guinea (one of the biggest cultural shows in Papua New Guinea; through tomorrow)

National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day

National Honey Bee Day -- US (this year's theme is Ban Ignorance - Not Honey Bees)
 
National Radio Day -- on the day WWJ(AM) radio first signed on in Detroit in 1920, one of the earliest news broadcast stations

Norskedalen Threshing Bee -- Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center, Coon Valley, WI, US (antique engines and pioneer demonstrations, as well as cream separating, butter-making, a thresher's meal, and more)

Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival -- Pittsburgh, PA, US (relive the days of yore, watch artisans practice the olde crafts, and have a high good time; weekends through September)

Revolution Day -- Western Sahara

Revolution of the King and People -- Morocco

Saddleworth Rushcart -- Saddleworth, West Yorkshire, England (similar to rushbearing, a cart goes through the area with Morris men, the bounds of the area are checked for enemy breaches, rushes are gathered to line the church floor, and there is celebrating, gurning, wrestling, singing, and a final procession tomorrow to St. Chad's Church at Uppermill for the 11am service)

Sandcastle and Sculpture Day -- Jetties Beach, Nantucket, MA, US

St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Day (Patron of bees and beekeepers, candle makers, wax refiners; Burgundy, France; Cistercians; Gibralter; Queens College, Cambridge, England; Speyer Cathedral)

Stop and Smell Your Dog Day -- and, depending on the results, maybe even Give Your Dog a Bath Day

St. Stephen's Festival --  Budapest, Hungary (National Day for all of Hungary)

Thoth orders the healing of the Eye of Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Virtual Worlds Day -- internet generated, as well it should be

Vuelta a Espana -- Spain (the third of cyclings' prestigious Grand Tours; through Sept. 11)

Woodward Dream Cruise Day 2016 -- Detroit, MI, US (what began in 1995 as a fundraiser for a soccer field has grown into the largest one-day classic car show in the world)

World Mosquito Day -- commemorates the day Dr. Ronald Ross discovered the link between mosquitoes and malaria in 1897


Birthdays Today:

Amy Adams, 1975
Tara Dakides, 1975
Jan Allen, 1956
Theresa Saldana, 1955
Al Roker, 1954
Robert Plant, 1948
Connie Chung, 1946
Don King, 1931
Jim Reeves, 1924
Jacqueline Susann, 1921
Eero Saarinen, 1910
Edgar Albert Guest, 1881
H.P. Lovecraft, 1880
Eliel Saarinen, 1873
Benjamin Harrison, 1833
Bernardo O'Higgins, 1776


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"1812 Overture"(Tchaikovsky Op. 49), 1882


Today in History:

Hungary is established as a kingdom by Stephen I, 1000
The Dutch bring the first African slaves to the colony of Jamestown, VA, 1619
The Spanish establish the presidio that will be the town of Tuscon, Arizona, 1775
The Lewis and Clark "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis 1804
Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow, 1882
Rotary Dial telephone is patented, 1896
The Big Blowup, a huge fire in the Northwestern US, burns 3 million acres, 1910
Adolphe Pegoud makes the first parachute jump from an airplane, 1913
Stainless steel is first cast, 1913
WJM,8Mk, Detroit, becomes the first commercial radio station to start daily broadcasting, 1920
UK becomes the first to use radar, 1940
Plutonium's weight determined, 1942
Launch of Voyager 2, 1977
George and Joy Adamson, the Born Free conservationists, are gunned down by poachers, 1989
The Oslo Peace Accords are signed in Norway, 1993
The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec may not secede from Canada without federal government approval, 1998
As part of ongoing political reforms, the government of Myanmar announces it will end media censorship, 2012

No! Please don't do this!

#2 Son and Daughter-in-Law Becky walked out of the front door on Saturday and almost tripped over a picnic basket we'd never seen before.

On that basket was a note that said, "Please take care of this baby bird."

Inside the basket was, 

You guess it, a baby bird.  A dove, in fact.

People, please.  Think.  Any "baby" bird that is fully fledged, in other words that has all of its feathers, is not an orphan in need of help, even if it is on the ground!

It was a juvenile that was trying to learn to fly, probably with mom and dad hovering nearby, when some misguided soul decided it was an orphan that needed rescuing.

Please, don't be that misguided soul!

When i called the wildlife rehab hospital to ask if they had someone there who could receive it, the lady told me that yes, they did.  When i explained the whole situation, that it was a juvenile dove someone grabbed up thinking it was in trouble and then dumped on us, she said it wasn't the first kidnapping of the day.

Yes, when you take a baby/juvenile animal that is not really orphaned, they call it a kidnapping.  Tongue in cheek, of course, but it's pretty accurate.

They get a lot of kidnappings this time of year, she told me, especially of small birds that are just trying to learn to fly.

If you find what you think is an orphaned animal, unless it is being stalked by a predator, is obviously injured, or is so tiny and young it can't survive on its own and you watch from a safe distance and no parent animal comes near, leave it alone, please.

It's not true that the parents will reject a baby you put back in the nest.  If you find a very tiny bird, and you see the nest, put it back, please.

If you have observed for a while and it becomes obvious the baby is orphaned, or it has to have help right away, please do not foist it on an unsuspecting neighbor, either.  Just because i am in cat rescue doesn't mean i know anything about birds, raccoons, opossums, or any other critters.  Call the department of wildlife in your area if you have to, but please don't just make it someone else's problem.

Had the person who found it knocked at the door, i would have explained that the bird wasn't in danger, was learning to fly, and needed to be put back where they found it.  Instead of being trained and raised by its parents, it's now going to be fed by people and trained to find food by people and taught to fly by people and released into what we hope will be a normal life for a dove, but we can't be sure. 

On a similar note, and please do not read the rest of this paragraph if you don't want sad news, you've been warned -- the injured hawk Sweetie and Ms. G rescued and took to that same wildlife rehab hospital a couple of weeks ago did not make it.  It had a crushed pelvis, and nothing could be done.

Today is:

Betty Boop Day -- she debuted in "Dizzy Dishes" on this day in 1930

Book Lover's Day -- internet generated, but if you love books, go sit under a shady tree with a cool drink and indulge!

Carnival Tuesday -- Granada

Clean Out the Kitchen Cupboards Day -- because someone, somewhere, thought it would be a good day to remind us to get rid of the junk in there we haven't seen since last year

Dag der Inheemsen -- Suriname (Indigenous People's Day)

Defense Forces Day -- Zimbabwe

Festival for Sol -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Fox Hill Day -- Nassau, Bahamas (final day of their Emancipation celebrations)

Goblin Ugly Contest -- Fairy Calendar

Independence Day / National Day -- Singapore(1965)

International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples -- UN

International Sundance -- Manitoba, Canada (an extraordinary gathering of Elders from many Native traditions around the world, to perform the sacred Sundance of the Lakota people and sacred ceremonies of the other traditions represented; through Saturday)

Jesse Owens Day -- the day he became the first American to win 4 gold medals

Nagasaki Day / Moment of Silence -- Japan

National Hand Holding Day -- sponsored by Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith of Chicago

National Rice Pudding Day

National Women's Day -- South Africa

Qi Xi -- China (Double Seventh or Chinese Valentine's Day, the 7th day of the 7th moon, the day all the magpies in the world form a bridge so the cowherd and the weaver can meet across the Milky Way, which separates them.)


Remembrance for Radbod, King of the Frisians -- Asatru/Norse Pagan

Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross' Day (born Edith Stein, killed at Auschwitz; Co-Patron of Europe; Patron of converts, martyrs, those who have lost their parents, World Youth Day)

Smokey the Bear Day -- Smokey first appeared on a U.S. Forest Service poster on this day in 1944

Veep Day -- US (commemoration of the day in 1974 Richard Nixon's resignation let Gerald Ford succeed to the presidency)

World's Fair of Money -- Anaheim, CA, US (the greatest money show on Earth, including dealers, exhibits from around the world, family activities and educational programs; through Saturday)


Yosakoi Matsuri -- Kochi City, Japan (over 100 groups come up with their own Bon dance and costume and have dance competions in the streets, through the 12th)


Anniversaries Today:

Coronation of Albert II of Belgium, 1993


Birthdays Today:

Audrey Tautou,1976
Eric Bana, 1968
Gillian Anderson, 1968
Delon Sanders, 1967
Hoda Kotb, 1964
Whitney Houston, 1963
Michael Kors, 1959
Amanda Bearse, 1958
Melanie Griffith, 1957
Sam Elliot, 1944
David Steinberg, 1942
Robert Joseph (Bob) Cousy, 1928
P.L. Travers, 1899
Joseph Locke, 1805
Amedeo Avogadro, 1776
John Dryden, 1631
Izaak Walton, 1593


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Béatrice et Bénédict (Beatrice and Benedick)"(Berlioz Opera Comique), 1862
Walden(Thoreau, publication date), 1854


Today in History:

Battle of Pharsalus, in which Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, who fled to Egypt, BC 40
Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta, 681
Start of construction of the Tower of Pisa, 1173*
Sistine Chapel opens, 1483
First horses arrive in Hawai'i, 1803
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains, 1842
Thoreau's Walden is published, 1854
Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph, 1892
Betty Boop makes her debut in the cartoon, Dizzy Dishes, 1930
Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement, 1942
The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time, 1944
Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the first and only country to date to gain independence unwillingly, 1965
Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, 1974
Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions in ice hockey history, 1988
The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership, 1993
Tensions escalate between North and South Korea, when South Korea claims North Korea fired over 100 rounds of artillery into the Sea of Japan, 2010
David Rudisha of Kenya becomes the first athlete at the 2012 Summer Olympics to set a new world track record and secures the 800m gold medal, 2012

*completed two hundred years later

Hard To Go

Most of the time, i'm bottle raising for a couple of particular rescue groups, especially one that has a shelter of its own.

This call was from the group that tries to rescue the dozens and dozens of precious animals that end up at animal control.

Before this group started, most of those animals were euthanized.  Many still are.  It's much better now, though, as this group works very hard to get homes for as many animals as possible.

Kay called and asked for a favor, the companion group that works with animal control needed a bottle feeder.  She gave my name to Tina, who gave it to Maria, and Maria said she was desperate, these three were living on a multi-animal formula that another volunteer was feeding them when they were able to take out the time, as they are always so overworked.

The animal control center is forever and a half out on the edge of town, past the juvenile court, bail bond places, and parish prison.  Out in the area where no one wants to willingly go.  Yet the dedicated volunteers go out there, day after day, and take care of animals, doing so much more than the animal control staff can do.

When i pulled up to the place i hadn't been in over 15 years, i parked in the back near where the tangled weeds grow right up to the fence, with the woods beyond.  The on site veterinary "office" is a house trailer that has seen better days.

Then out of the car and i saw what's so hard to see.  Cage after cage, dog after dog, some two or three in a larger cage.  Most of the cages were clean, but a few needed attention.  Every tail wags and every pair of eyes follows hopefully when people pass.

Now, i have to admit that i am a messy mimi.  While i do clean, things can get a bit behind, and stuff tends to pile up in some places.  My floors, especially, often sport dried kitten formula and other dregs of raising these babies, but all litter boxes get cleaned daily and i sweep and try to spot clean as soon as i see anything and mop as often as i can.  It builds up, though, and my house smells like it has cats, it can't be helped.  It's something we are used to, we don't notice.  When i walk into other people's homes, if they have cats or dogs, i don't notice a smell, it's something i'm used to, unless it's a hoarding situation.

This time, following a volunteer into the large part of the back of the animal control building itself, the stench was almost overwhelming.  As much as i don't mind smells, and even enjoy the smell of a barn,  that beautiful, earthy scent of horses or cows, this smelled of death and illness, and it was awful.  It's the area the public doesn't see, the reason i have such a hard time coming out there.

It's the reason i think the people who volunteer out here are among the best people there are, because i'm not sure i could do it.

She brought me through to the front, where the public can sit and pick a happy, healthy companion, and from there Maria brought me in a tiny back office where one small dog was in a cage and another was wandering around, getting underfoot and being a darling.  On a table in a carrier were three kittens.  Next to the carrier, a cup full of formula that looked thin and watery to me, with syringes in it, the kind with no needled, to use to feed the babies.  No bottles are available here.

Maria asked me to fill out a volunteer form, which i did, and i fed the babies some more of their watery formula, which they took gladly, so they would perhaps sleep on the trip home.  As i stood there, she called two other volunteers back with her to discuss a man who had come in to claim his dog.  The dog had been left tied to a fence, so closely tied that it could hardly move, with no food, water, or shelter.  This in the hot south Louisiana summer can easily be lethal.  Yet she was explaining that there was no animal control hold on the animal, so she wasn't sure she could deny him.

A couple of phone calls, and she got someone from the staff to agree that, though there wasn't a hold, he would come out there on a Saturday and talk to the man, stressing that they would check up on the dog and telling him he had to provide shade and water at all times the animal was outside.  The whole conversation made me want to cry, and i know those volunteers hate having to give an animal back to an owner under such circumstances.  Yet they keep coming back and doing this job.

A few minutes later,  i put the kittens in my carrier and went out through the front door to walk around the building to my car, as i could not imagine trying to go through the back area again.

That last feeding was only partially successful; one of the babies screamed for about half of the long trip, and of course i came home to 13 screaming at me at home, all ready for a meal.  Many of those are weaned, though, or partially so, so it's not so bad.

The two in the kitten cage had been bathed and let out of isolation earlier, and the cage cleaned for these new ones.  So i fed everyone and moved these three into the cage, the tiniest babies into a much larger carrier, and the other 11 are running around the kitchen, dining area, library, and front hall, terrorizing my own cats who find the situation of all these invaders intolerable except that they bring with them the opportunity to steal kitten food and formula.

Now i have 16 kittens, from 3 different rescues, ranging from 2-7 weeks in age, and from 6 different litters.  Next Friday, the biggest of them can go to the one rescue that has a shelter of its own.

And in a few weeks, i'll have to go back out there, where it's hard for me to go.  At least these babies will get homes from out there, but i'm in more awe of the volunteers who work in that place than ever before.  They have nerves of steel.




Today is:

Banti Meskerem -- Eritrea (Revolution Day)

Bonnat Pig Fair -- Bonnat, France

Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day

Chicken Boy's Day -- the mascot of the now defunct restaurant by that name, the 22 foot statue of a boy with a chicken's head was saved from destruction and is now a pop icon in L.A. on Route 66

Constitution Day/National Day -- Slovakia

Day of Knowledge -- Estonia (an official Flag Day); Russia

Disaster Prevention Day/Kanto Earthquake Memorial Day -- Japan

Ecclesiastical Year begins -- Orthodox Christian

Father's Day -- Australia; Fiji; Papua New Guinea; New Zealand

Festival of Juno Regina and Jupiter Liber -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Giostra del Saracino -- Arezzo, Italy ("Saracen Joust," a tilting contest dating back to the 13th century, with knights in armor)

Harvest Wine Celebration -- Livermore, CA, US (open-house visits to 43 wineries; through tomorrow)

Hassaku Oshi-tsuki -- Tsuma, Oki Island, Japan (bull sumo, with bulls pushing each other out of the ring)

Historical Regatta -- Venice, Italy (competition among two-oar racing gondolas, preceded by Venetian ceremonial boats)

Mustaqillik Kuni -- Uzbekistan (Independence Day, 1991)

National Cherry Popover Day

National No Rhyme (Nor Reason) Day -- the day to celebrate the amazing words in the English language that do not rhyme with any other words

Nutt Day -- for Emma M. Nutt, the first female telephone operator

Oyster Season begins

Partridge's Day -- partridge hunting season begins in UK

Presidential Message Day -- Mexico

Random Acts of Kindness Day -- New Zealand

Running of the Sheep -- Reed Point, MT (matched only by the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, hundreds of sturdy Montana bred woolies charge down the six blocks of the main street in town, plus there is a parade!)

Sing A Silly Song in Bed Day -- now, this one has no real rhyme or reason

Sneeze-Wobbling Festival -- Fairy Calendar

St. Fiacre's Day -- Ireland and France (the rest of the church celebrates this Patron of gardeners on August 30)

St. Gideon the Judge's Day (Patron of Saint-Gedeon-de-Beauce, Canada)

St. Giles' Day (Patron of the beggars, blacksmiths, breast feeding, cancer patients, disabled/handicapped people, epileptics, forests, hermits, horses, lepers, mentally ill people, noctiphobics, paupers and the poor, rams, spur makers, woods; Edinburgh, Scotland; Toifa, Italy; against breast cancer, epilepsy, fear of the night, insanity, leprosy, mental illness, noctiphobia, sterility)

St. Simeon Stylites' Day -- Eastern Orthodox Christian

Teacher's Day -- Singapore

Wattle Day -- Australia


Birthdays Today:

Gloria Estefan, 1957
Dr. Phil McGraw, 1950
Barry Gibb, 1946
Lily Tomlin, 1939
Seiji Ozawa, 1935
Conway Twitty, 1933
"Boxcar" Willie, 1931
Rocky Marciano, 1923
Yvonne DeCarlo, 1922
Vittorio Gassman, 1922
Edgar Rice Burroughts, 1875
Englebert Humperdinck. 1854 (composer, esp of opera Hansel and Gretel)
Johann Pachelbel, 1653


Today in History:

Rabbi Moses Ben Nachman establishes a Jewish community in Jerusalem, 1267
Adi Granth, now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhs, was first installed at Harmandir Sahib, 1601
The first yacht race is held, between England's King Charles I and his brother James, 1661
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa forms in California, 1772
Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, is discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding, 1804
Narcissa Whitman, one of the first white women to settle west of the
Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington, 1836
The first Pullman sleeping car is put into service, 1859
The Solar Superstorm/Carrington Event: a huge solar sunspot and solar flare storm that disrupted telegraphy and allowed the Aurora Borealis to be seen as far south as the Caribbean occurs, 1859
Joseph Lister performs the first antiseptic surgery, 1865
Robert T. Freeman becomes the first African American to graduate from the Harvard Dental School, 1867
The first underground rapid transit system in North America, the Boston Subway, opens, 1897
One of the first science fiction films ever, A Trip To The Moon, opens in France, 1902
Alberta and Saskatchewan become the 8th and 9th Canadian provinces, 1905
Martha, the last passenger pigeon, dies at the Cincinnati Zoo, 1914
The United States, Australia and New Zealand sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty, 1951
In Reykjavík, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky and becomes the world chess champion, 1972
Canada adopts the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of its Constitution, 1982
A joint French-American expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, 1985
Luxembourg becomes the first nation to complete the transition to all digital tv broadcasting, 2006