Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Special Needs Pets
Did you know that dogs rely primarily on smell? Blind dogs are easily acclimatized to a new environment. We humans primarily relay on sight, so we can't relate, but dogs do not rely primarily on sight. They can easily be taught the layout of a new home.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Black Pets are least likely to be adopted
... and most likely to be euthanized due to not being adopted.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Dogs
One of North America's biggest puppy mills was shut down this week-end. Quebec is, unfortunately, the worst place in North America for puppy mills due to Quebec's comparably relaxed animal welfare laws. (That's not to say that everywhere else is fine, and Quebec has some tough legislation already in the works.) Still, you can read about the story here, here, and here.
Whatever you do, please do NOT buy your pets from a pet store (unless the store is a satellite for your local humane society or SPCA), from on-line, from the want-ads of your newspaper (unless it's a want-ad for a rescue group or humane society), from a "backyard breeder", or from kijiji or Craig's list.
Look into reputable breeders. Start by researching the breed you want. Then go to their breed website and look up breeders (you can start with the Canadian Kennel Club or American Kennel Club, or local equivalent). Ask for recommendations. Ask friends or on internet message boards. Remember, a good breeder won't have 500 dogs present - they just can't properly care and socialize that many dogs. And a good breeder will usually only focus on one breed. And GO to the breeder to check things out.
Whatever you do, please do NOT buy your pets from a pet store (unless the store is a satellite for your local humane society or SPCA), from on-line, from the want-ads of your newspaper (unless it's a want-ad for a rescue group or humane society), from a "backyard breeder", or from kijiji or Craig's list.
Look into reputable breeders. Start by researching the breed you want. Then go to their breed website and look up breeders (you can start with the Canadian Kennel Club or American Kennel Club, or local equivalent). Ask for recommendations. Ask friends or on internet message boards. Remember, a good breeder won't have 500 dogs present - they just can't properly care and socialize that many dogs. And a good breeder will usually only focus on one breed. And GO to the breeder to check things out.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
9/11 - Ten years later
This year is the first year I've felt ready to confront my emotions around 9/11. Every year has felt too raw. I hope that as a society (western society), we evaluate our societal changes since that day. Still, today isn't about society, it's about remembering those individuals who died that day - those in the towers, the Pentagon, the planes, and the rescue workers. And those are still dying from the diseases from exposures on that day (such as asbestos-related cancers).
According to the CBC:
The 2,977 official victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were from more than 90 countries, and memorial services were held around the world Sunday. A service in Gander, Newfoundland & Labrador, commemorated 9/11 and recalled the 6,700 air travellers who were stranded in the town of 9,000 people for up to three days when North American airspace was shut down in the wake of the attacks. Memorials were also held or pending in Halifax, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, and other places in Canada. Elsewhere:
• In Japan, families gathered in Tokyo to pay their respects to the 23 Fuji Bank employees who never made it out of their World Trade Center office. A dozen of the workers who died were Japanese.
• In Malaysia, Pathmawathy Navaratnam woke up Sunday in her suburban Kuala Lumpur home and did what she's done every day for the past 10 years: wish her son "good morning." Vijayashanker Paramsothy, a 23-year-old financial analyst, was killed in the attacks on New York.
• In Santiago, more than 5,000 people partook in a march to remember Chile's Sept. 11 — the fateful day in 1973 when U.S.-backed Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew the country's democratic government in a coup and installed a vicious dictatorship that killed more than 3,000 people, tortured up to 30,000 others and forced a further 30,000 into exile.
• In Manila, Philippines, dozens of former shanty dwellers offered roses, balloons and prayers for another 9/11 victim, American citizen Marie Rose Abad. Their neighbourhood used to be a shantytown that reeked of garbage. But in 2004, Abad's Filipino-American husband built 50 brightly coloured homes, fulfilling his late wife's wish to help impoverished Filipinos. The village has since been named after her.
• In Kabul, U.S. soldiers marked the anniversary of the attacks with a ceremony outside the American Embassy. On display was a symbolic iron-made sculpture of the World Trade Center and New York city skyline. The sculpture was made of the steel ruins of the twin towers.
• In New Zealand, players from the American Eagles rugby team were among the first to mark the anniversary at a memorial service in the town of New Plymouth. The players, who are participating in the Rugby World Cup tournament, listened to a speech by U.S. Ambassador David Huebner, whose brother Rick survived the attacks on the World Trade Center.
• In Australia, Sydney resident Rae Tompsett said she's never felt angry over the murder of her son Stephen Tompsett, 39, a computer engineer who was on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower when it was hit by a hijacked plane. "No, not anger," she said. "Sorrow. Sorrow that the people who did this believed they were doing something good." The retired school teacher and her husband Jack, 92, were planning to attend Sunday morning mass as usual at their local church before going to a commemorative service in the afternoon.
• In South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama conveying his "deepest condolences" to the victims.
• In Pakistan, which has been a victim of al-Qaeda attacks but is also accused of not doing enough to crack down on militants, the country's leaders said they joined the people of the U.S. in honouring the memory of those killed 10 years ago.
Barack Obama: "A decade after 9/11, it's clear for all the world to see — the terrorists who attacked us that September morning are no match for the character of our people, the resilience of our nation, or the endurance of our values. [...] And no matter what comes our way, as a resilient nation, we will carry on."
Where were you when you found out? Had the first plane struck? Had the towers collapsed? What did you think?
According to the CBC:
The 2,977 official victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were from more than 90 countries, and memorial services were held around the world Sunday. A service in Gander, Newfoundland & Labrador, commemorated 9/11 and recalled the 6,700 air travellers who were stranded in the town of 9,000 people for up to three days when North American airspace was shut down in the wake of the attacks. Memorials were also held or pending in Halifax, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, and other places in Canada. Elsewhere:
• In Japan, families gathered in Tokyo to pay their respects to the 23 Fuji Bank employees who never made it out of their World Trade Center office. A dozen of the workers who died were Japanese.
• In Malaysia, Pathmawathy Navaratnam woke up Sunday in her suburban Kuala Lumpur home and did what she's done every day for the past 10 years: wish her son "good morning." Vijayashanker Paramsothy, a 23-year-old financial analyst, was killed in the attacks on New York.
• In Santiago, more than 5,000 people partook in a march to remember Chile's Sept. 11 — the fateful day in 1973 when U.S.-backed Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew the country's democratic government in a coup and installed a vicious dictatorship that killed more than 3,000 people, tortured up to 30,000 others and forced a further 30,000 into exile.
• In Manila, Philippines, dozens of former shanty dwellers offered roses, balloons and prayers for another 9/11 victim, American citizen Marie Rose Abad. Their neighbourhood used to be a shantytown that reeked of garbage. But in 2004, Abad's Filipino-American husband built 50 brightly coloured homes, fulfilling his late wife's wish to help impoverished Filipinos. The village has since been named after her.
• In Kabul, U.S. soldiers marked the anniversary of the attacks with a ceremony outside the American Embassy. On display was a symbolic iron-made sculpture of the World Trade Center and New York city skyline. The sculpture was made of the steel ruins of the twin towers.
• In New Zealand, players from the American Eagles rugby team were among the first to mark the anniversary at a memorial service in the town of New Plymouth. The players, who are participating in the Rugby World Cup tournament, listened to a speech by U.S. Ambassador David Huebner, whose brother Rick survived the attacks on the World Trade Center.
• In Australia, Sydney resident Rae Tompsett said she's never felt angry over the murder of her son Stephen Tompsett, 39, a computer engineer who was on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower when it was hit by a hijacked plane. "No, not anger," she said. "Sorrow. Sorrow that the people who did this believed they were doing something good." The retired school teacher and her husband Jack, 92, were planning to attend Sunday morning mass as usual at their local church before going to a commemorative service in the afternoon.
• In South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama conveying his "deepest condolences" to the victims.
• In Pakistan, which has been a victim of al-Qaeda attacks but is also accused of not doing enough to crack down on militants, the country's leaders said they joined the people of the U.S. in honouring the memory of those killed 10 years ago.
Barack Obama: "A decade after 9/11, it's clear for all the world to see — the terrorists who attacked us that September morning are no match for the character of our people, the resilience of our nation, or the endurance of our values. [...] And no matter what comes our way, as a resilient nation, we will carry on."
Where were you when you found out? Had the first plane struck? Had the towers collapsed? What did you think?
Monday, June 27, 2011
Vote again!!!
I blogged before about Cheryll and Graham. They are only 100 votes shy of winning her wedding dress. (Or at least $800 of it.) Please click here to vote!
Here's her story:
Cheryll looooooves butterflies. Her boy-friend planned an early spring trip to Niagara Falls, including a trip to the butterfly conservatory and tours of the local wineries in the former honeymoon capital.
Cheryll and Graham spent the morning biking Niagara Falls wineries. In the afternoon, they went to the butterfly conservatory. As they walked through Cheryll was smitten and taking far too many pictures of all of the butterflies. At one point, she finally turned around and noticed Graham on one knee.
Graham was speechless because he was so nervous so it took him a minute to get any words out, but he had tears in his eyes.
When Cheryll saw this for some reason she thought he had stepped on a butterfly and was upset about it so she knelt down to him to comfort him, assuring him that it was an accident.
He hadn't stepped on a butterfly, but he was still speechless. While Cheryll was trying to comfort him, it took all he had to whisper "Will you marry me? You are the love of my life and I want to spend the rest of mine with you."
To give you an idea of Cheryll's love of butterflies, here is a screen snapshot I took of the facebook photos from the trip. You can see the photo right after her engagement of them in front of the cherry tree in the bottom row ... but the majority of the photos involved butterflies!
AND please feel free to re post this on your blog or tweet it! They need the votes by midnight tomorrow (Tuesday, June 28).
Here's her story:
Cheryll looooooves butterflies. Her boy-friend planned an early spring trip to Niagara Falls, including a trip to the butterfly conservatory and tours of the local wineries in the former honeymoon capital.
Cheryll and Graham spent the morning biking Niagara Falls wineries. In the afternoon, they went to the butterfly conservatory. As they walked through Cheryll was smitten and taking far too many pictures of all of the butterflies. At one point, she finally turned around and noticed Graham on one knee.
Graham was speechless because he was so nervous so it took him a minute to get any words out, but he had tears in his eyes.
When Cheryll saw this for some reason she thought he had stepped on a butterfly and was upset about it so she knelt down to him to comfort him, assuring him that it was an accident.
He hadn't stepped on a butterfly, but he was still speechless. While Cheryll was trying to comfort him, it took all he had to whisper "Will you marry me? You are the love of my life and I want to spend the rest of mine with you."
To give you an idea of Cheryll's love of butterflies, here is a screen snapshot I took of the facebook photos from the trip. You can see the photo right after her engagement of them in front of the cherry tree in the bottom row ... but the majority of the photos involved butterflies!
AND please feel free to re post this on your blog or tweet it! They need the votes by midnight tomorrow (Tuesday, June 28).
Monday, June 6, 2011
Two years ago today ... and help a new bride out!
My 2nd anniversary is TODAY!
It must be a sign that I'm getting older that I'm marvelling at the passage of time.
In honour of my anniversary, maybe you can help my friend Cheryll. She has 67 votes in a contest is to win her wedding dress. (Or at least $800 of it.) And she's nowhere nearing winning right now. The contest closes soon! Please click
here to vote!
Here's her story:
Girly Cheryll looooooves butterflies. Her macho boy-friend planned a spring trip to a butterfly conservatory near Niagara Falls, followed by some time actually visiting what used to be the honeymoon capital.
Cheryll and Graham spent the morning biking Niagara Falls wineries. In the afternoon, they went to the butterfly conservatory. As they walked through Cheryll was smitten and taking far too many pictures of all of the butterflies. At one point, she finally turned around and noticed Graham on one knee.
Graham was speechless because he was so nervous so it took him a minute to get any words out, but he had tears in his eyes (he is very manly and never cries so it is adorable).
When Cheryll saw this for some reason she thought he had stepped on a butterfly and was upset about it so she knelt down to him to comfort him!
Of course, he hadn't stepped on a butterfly, and it took all he had to whisper "Will you marry me? You are the love of my life and I want to spend the rest of mine with you."
To give you an idea of Cheryll's love of butterflies, here is a screen snapshot I took of the facebook photos from the trip. You can see the photo right after her engagement of them in front of the cherry tree in the bottom row ... but the majority of the photos involved butterflies!
It must be a sign that I'm getting older that I'm marvelling at the passage of time.
In honour of my anniversary, maybe you can help my friend Cheryll. She has 67 votes in a contest is to win her wedding dress. (Or at least $800 of it.) And she's nowhere nearing winning right now. The contest closes soon! Please click
here to vote!
Here's her story:
Girly Cheryll looooooves butterflies. Her macho boy-friend planned a spring trip to a butterfly conservatory near Niagara Falls, followed by some time actually visiting what used to be the honeymoon capital.
Cheryll and Graham spent the morning biking Niagara Falls wineries. In the afternoon, they went to the butterfly conservatory. As they walked through Cheryll was smitten and taking far too many pictures of all of the butterflies. At one point, she finally turned around and noticed Graham on one knee.
Graham was speechless because he was so nervous so it took him a minute to get any words out, but he had tears in his eyes (he is very manly and never cries so it is adorable).
When Cheryll saw this for some reason she thought he had stepped on a butterfly and was upset about it so she knelt down to him to comfort him!
Of course, he hadn't stepped on a butterfly, and it took all he had to whisper "Will you marry me? You are the love of my life and I want to spend the rest of mine with you."
To give you an idea of Cheryll's love of butterflies, here is a screen snapshot I took of the facebook photos from the trip. You can see the photo right after her engagement of them in front of the cherry tree in the bottom row ... but the majority of the photos involved butterflies!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
We now return to our normal programming
... Including those long-ago promised pictures from my redecorating, pictures from my friend's bridal shower that I hosted, pictures from her bachelorette that I hosted, pictures from our deck that is currently getting redone (due to falling apart in the middle!), and other normal posts.
Evil begets evil
While I welcome the news that a certain bad man is no longer able to be bad. He was considered the mastermind of one of the modern era's darkest hours in an attack on my neighbouring country, resulting in the death of many people of many nationalities. (Many of my countrymen - I would say the majority of us - consider an attack on our allies as an attack on us, too.) I was not shocked that the bad man was in the country he was in (it starts with the 16th letter of the alphabet), in spite of that country insisting he was next door in their neighbour's country (that starts with the words used to describe a charming colourful blanket).
(I'm avoiding names and locations so this post doesn't come up in random searches because I'm not interested in being a political blogger.)
I was shocked to see westerners (in many countries, but not surprisingly predominantly in the country most affected by this bad man) dancing on the streets and cheering the bad man's death. Certainly, it was good news, but to dance and sing in the street? Didn't we westerners shudder when we saw the people of the Middle East burning effigies of western politicians, burning the main religious book used by the largest religious group in "the west", shouting death to my neighbours to the south, and doing similar "uncivilized" behaviours? Didn't we say to ourselves that we were educated and above such lowly behaviour?
A wonderful friend pointed out the following, said by one of the greatest of my neighbours to the south:
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
Martin Luther King Jr
(I'm avoiding names and locations so this post doesn't come up in random searches because I'm not interested in being a political blogger.)
I was shocked to see westerners (in many countries, but not surprisingly predominantly in the country most affected by this bad man) dancing on the streets and cheering the bad man's death. Certainly, it was good news, but to dance and sing in the street? Didn't we westerners shudder when we saw the people of the Middle East burning effigies of western politicians, burning the main religious book used by the largest religious group in "the west", shouting death to my neighbours to the south, and doing similar "uncivilized" behaviours? Didn't we say to ourselves that we were educated and above such lowly behaviour?
A wonderful friend pointed out the following, said by one of the greatest of my neighbours to the south:
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
Martin Luther King Jr
The world is changing
I am somewhat political. I don't have an identified party. There are 3 parties I alternate between, depending on the election, their platform, and other factors. In Canada, we have multiple parties, and the 3 main ones are the Conservatives (right-wing), Liberals (centre-left), NDP (left-wing). Then there's the Green Party (left-wing with an environmental focus), who just won their first seat. There's also the Bloc Quebecois (who only run in Quebec and want Quebec to separate from Canada). And there are weird parties like the Animal-Environmental Alliance, two Communist parties, the Marijuana Party, the Rhinocerous Party, and the Pirate Party. (These parties only run candidates in a couple ridings, so they won't be able to govern, and they basically never win.)
So what's the point of my rambling? Well, other than disappointment in the result, it means it's just one thing that's been adding to my consumption of things non-blogging
I voted in my riding, in spite of it being a foregone conclusion that the Conservative would win by a landslide. Voting is a duty to me, and I have voted in every election since turning 18.
(Just one more explanation. Harper, the Conservative [equivalent of an American Republican] got a majority, meaning he can do whatever he want unopposed. Our checks and balances are not particularly strong, so as a majority they can pass any law. They're only accountable to voters in 4 more years, although accountability to voters isn't such a bad thing.)
So what's the point of my rambling? Well, other than disappointment in the result, it means it's just one thing that's been adding to my consumption of things non-blogging
I voted in my riding, in spite of it being a foregone conclusion that the Conservative would win by a landslide. Voting is a duty to me, and I have voted in every election since turning 18.
(Just one more explanation. Harper, the Conservative [equivalent of an American Republican] got a majority, meaning he can do whatever he want unopposed. Our checks and balances are not particularly strong, so as a majority they can pass any law. They're only accountable to voters in 4 more years, although accountability to voters isn't such a bad thing.)
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