Bio-Diversity

Here’s an offering from an artist friend with environmental sensibilities.  After you take a look at the “tree art,” please check out Horatio’s site.

Pets and Swine Flu

So many things we want to share with our pets, but Swine Flu isn’t one of them. This week the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association verified that three Oregon ferrets have contracted H1N1. The source: most likely their human family.

Wondering what ferret swine flu symptoms are? Check www.thiswildlife.com for a complete run down on the ferret-swine flu situation, as well as an answer to the question, “Can dogs and cats get swine flu?”

Get it?...

Baby, You Can Dry My Paws

Fall is here. When the clocks roll back, the cold rain falls in the lucky places, and snow and ice for the less lucky.

Imagine you and your dog come in from a run on a slushy trail or a walk in the park and have enough clean rags handy to dry your dog’s feet and fur. And a place to put your muddy or icy boots and hang your dripping coat. Ahhhh.

You can. Inventory old tee shirts, socks, towels, and dish cloths that are too horrible to imagine using any other way. Cut the tee shirts into squares. Use the socks, towels, and dish cloths as they are. Fold and pile in a basket near your dog entry. Super organized people have a second basket for the dirty towels.

The best of all worlds is to do your de-mudding in a mudroom, where you can also store your leashes, jackets, and ‘dog-walk-a-nalia.” If you have no mudroom, you can fake it using gates that restrict children’s access or an exercise pen set up indoors.

In your mudroom or “holding area,” you can confine your dog, store your shoes, and hang your coat over water absorbent mat. This will prevent the human and dog from tracking mud and slush into your nice clean home.

After an initial toweling and drying of your precious pooch, allow her to munch a treat or lick a Kong on her great mat to allow the remaining mud to dry quickly. Then, gently brush the rest away—before you release darling Marley to jump onto the couch.

Think she needs a leash and a mudroom?

You can do this with a shallow bowl of water also. Use the command, “paw.”

Okay, other pets get muddy too.

Photo credit:  Public Domain Pictures

Halloween Approaches…

Photos by Dick Seignious

Since owls are often regarded as birds of mystery, we offer a short profile of one owl that is associated with prairie dogs—the burrowing owl. These ground dwelling owls about 10 inches long, don’t share their burrows with ground squirrels and prairie dogs, but prefer to move in to those rodents’ abandoned excavations. Because of their close living arrangements, the Zuñi people called burrowing owls “the priest of the prairie dogs.” “Among the numerous Owl Kachinas the Shko’o’ko of Cochiti derives from the Burrowing Owl, even though there is nothing realistic about either mask or dress” (Tyler, Pueblo Birds and Myths, p 161).
To some, this perky looking owl appears to walk on feathered stilts. Burrowing owls hunt morning and afternoon, hovering until they spot a small mammal such as a bat or shrew, amphibians such as a frog or toad, or insects such as crickets and sometimes dragonflies, which they catch in flight.
Burrowing owls will be new to those readers living in the Eastern United States, and to many living elsewhere in the world. Here’s the sound a burrowing owl makes.
For more information, consult the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
You can also view some great videos from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:
Close-up: Twelve Owlets
Owls and Marmots Living in Harmony
Feeding Time

Photos by Dick Seignious

The K-9 Carnival

San Juan Parks and Recreation recently invited me to participate in the Island’s K-9 Carnival. I stayed at the amazing Earthbox Motel in Friday Harbor, Washington. Earthbox is a fun blend of old-fashioned motor inn and modern northwestern spa.
Planet Dog kindly donated toys for our drawing. Our kids winner was April, shown here with her prize. Another lucky dog won the adult prize drawing- a delicious minty bone made of eco-friendly materials from Planet Dog.