For the doggies……

Malibu

RATTLESNAKE AVOIDANCE

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

The Mountains Restoration Trust is hosting a Rattlesnake Avoidance Training Clinic For Dogs with dog trainer Tracy Jenson-Presson. The training, which involves live snakes, “is conducted in a safe, humane, controlled environment ensuring the safety of your dog, as well as the safety of the rattlesnakes,” a press release states. “The training process is repeated several times to ensure that the dog understands the sight, smell and sound of a rattlesnake. We have found the best way to teach a dog to avoid rattlesnakes is to use live rattlesnake specimens that have been neutralized. The snakes are placed out in a field setting and the dogs are fitted with an electronic training collar, the dog is led through the field and allowed to encounter the rattlesnakes at which point the dog is stimulated using the electronic collar, The process is repeated several times to ensure that the dog understands the sight, sound and smell of a rattlesnake (rattlesnakes have a distinctive odor that a dog can discern from other snakes).” Training sessions are offered on April 17 at Headwaters Corner, Masson House, 23075 Mulholland Highway, Calabasas, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And on May 14 and 15 and June 11 and 12 at Tapia Park, 884 North Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $70 per dog. Reservations are required. More information is available at www.mountainstrust.org

Wonderful Santa Barbara

I counted 23 cranes nests in these trees.

A day at The Santa Barbara Zoo is a wonderful day. The Zoo is located just across the street from the beach so is nice and cool, no glaring heat and baked animals. They actually seem to be more active. Now I’m not one for Zoo’s I actually get rather sad looking at some of the animals, but somehow this little zoo is a real gem. It’s small in scope and exhibits, and the “cages” are not really cage looking, but rather environments. There is a portion of the zoo that is in an aviary flight path, you can tell by the white bird poo’s everywhere. They have actually set up an area for the vultures that they have flying room in. The lions are on beautiful green grass in a nice enclosure, just across the street from the beach within roar distance. I can only imagine what it sounds like at night. I went with a 3 and 6 yr. old so in their eyes it’s a pretty cool place. All in all a cute smaller zoo with style.

My dogs…

I have had some amazing dogs in my life. I love dogs, they give you everything they’ve got. They are always there to make you feel good, just a smile and they light up.

Asia was my very first Golden Retriever when I moved into my first apartment. I finally found her after visiting about 4 shelters. I saw a golden puppy in the back of the cage, I called to her, she turned smiled and came running full force at me only to skid and slide thru a huge diarrhea deposit……I knew she was for me. We had so much fun on the beach chasing packs of seagulls, her only downside…. she used to poop in my shower….haaaa. Then I met my husband we moved into a big house by the beach and she had a yard, she was always happy.

LuLu was my Mom’s dog. She was a very large light Golden retriever and came from a wonderful Golden family line. We picked her out together. When my Mom was sick with a brain tumor she asked that I always take care of Lulu. My Mom died and Lulu became my shadow. I was with her until the day she died……it was a terrible day, it was like I was losing my Mom all over again. Lulu died in my arms at home, laying next to my bed. Damn I loved that ol’ dog.

I now have Baily….The Zen Warrior. I went looking for a cat to kill the ground squirrels in the back yard. If you don’t keep the squirrel population down you end up with rattlesnakes coming to eat the squirrels. So you have to take away their food source, such is the circle of life. I went to get a cat, and low and behold came back with a scroungy sweet faced cocker/terrier mix. He is an absolute Zen Warrior in the house….mellow, silent, patient, loving. When he gets outside around other dogs he turns into the tasmanian devil….ALL EXCEPT for Cotton Candy, a very small dog across the street that looks just like Bailey but is PURPLE! yep that is correct! I think Bailey is finally in love.

I do love dogs so much….

Disappearing ice

January 26, 2011

Polar Bear Mother Loses Cub During Record-Setting Swim in Search of Sea Ice

Matt Barrett

Yale Environment 360 posted a story today about a female polar bear that, faced with rapidly disappearing summer sea ice in the Beaufort Sea (north of Alaska), was forced to make a nine-day, 426-mile swim in search of sufficient ice.

The trip caused her to lose 22 percent of her body fat and killed her yearling cub, according to U.S. researchers.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey placed a GPS collar on the female bear to track its movement for two months as it sought out ice floes where it could hunt its favored prey – ringed seals.

The GPS data showed that the female made the longest swim ever recorded by a polar bear, as it continuously paddled through waters that were 2 to 6 degrees C (3.6 to 11 F) for nine days.

“We were in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of the sea could swim constantly for so long in water so cold,” said zoologist George M. Durner. “It is truly an amazing feat.”

Yale Environment 360 also reports that the rapidly-rising Arctic temperatures, and the resultant melting of summer sea ice, is causing declines in the more southerly populations of polar bears.

Source: Yale Environment 360

Matt Barrett is marketing manager for climate change at The Nature Conservancy

Photo by: Flickr user Suzanne Miller/USFWS (Polar Bear Female With Cubs Along the Beaufort Sea). Used under a Creative Commons license

Bailey…painting of my dog

22 x 28  acrylic on canvas                               “Bailey”

Bailey is my dog. Little did I know what I was getting into that fateful day I went looking for a cat!

I was looking for an outside cat to control the ground squirrel population in the backyard. I happened to have my daughter with me out at the Chatsworth Animal Shelter. I thought it would be easy enough, get a tough female cat to handle the ground squirrels. If you don’t handle the ground squirrels then you get rattle snakes that come to eat the squirrels, they are a source of food to the snakes….and that’s the last thing we need is setting up a deli situation for the rattlers.

My daughter yells a wail of a yell Mom YA GOTTA SEE THIS!

There he was Bailey, Baggles, Snaggies, Bu. Sitting in a small cage surrounded by chihuahua’s small dogs of all kinds. He just sat in the middle of the cage while they all went little dog frantic. Ahhhh this was a good sign. One of the things I hate about little dogs is the incessant barking, woops, I mean yapping. This one was different, he was also adorable! We went to the desk to inquire about him and the lady told us he was brought in and dropped off the day before…Now prepare yourself for this one...The previous owners brought him into the pound they said…….Because, “he didn’t look like a puppy anymore” Now I don’t know about you, but that makes me want to barf, and beat someone over the head with an iron skillet. This adorable dog was only 2 and a half years old and already being discarded.

We knew what we had to do. Bailey was a free dog, free from the cage. He cost 9 dollars, and with everything it was about $23. Bailey even had an implant for ID in his neck if he ever got lost. Driving back to Malibu holding this little shrivering dog, I could only wonder what he was thinking. The shelter was inland and around 100 degrees out there, but we were on our way to Malibu, paradise at the beach where it was probably 72 degrees…..I whispered this to Bailey telling him what a lucky dog he really was.

We had totally forgotten the whole idea of the cat…..the ground squirrels were safe.

Turned out that Bailey is an incredible dog. We call him the Zen Warrior at home, because of his even, mellow manner. Once he goes outside on a leash, he turns into a maniac, whirling dervish of a Tasmanian Devil when he spies another dog. I later found out why he was being so quiet and good in the cage at the shelter, he didn’t feel good with kennel cough.

All in all Bailey is my pal, and one of the best dogs I’ve ever had.

Clear your land with goat power!

Lawn Mowing Takes a Cheap and Tasty Turn — for Goats

By Ernest Beck Aug 5th 2010 @ 3:15PM

Gas-guzzling weed-whackers and toxic chemicals are so yesterday when it comes to eco-conscious lawn and garden care, especially when homeowners can now use goats to do the dirty, dangerous work.

A cottage industry of entrepreneurs is flourishing by renting out goats to home warriors battling weeds, prickly underbrush, and other unwanted vegetation — including nasty things like poison oak that you wouldn’t want to get near yourself.

Don’t worry PETA, this won’t hurt the goats: They enjoy a diet of nutrient-dense, broadleaf plants and brush. That’s the idea behind companies like www.rent-a-goat.com, the Goat Lady and Rent a Ruminant LLC, which bring the animals right to your front door or to your overgrown front acreage, as the case may be, where they forage on stuff you want to get rid of with no chemicals and a only a tiny carbon hoofprint. (Sadly, you can’t just buy some goats and keep them in the backyard.)

But how cost-effective and environmentally-friendly is goat weed control?

Prices range from $200 a day for a dozen goats to $1,000 for a larger herd of 1,000 or more. So it depends on how big a spread you have and how much underbrush needs to be cleared.

In a cost-benefit analysis at the Vanderbilt Mansion, a national historic site in Hyde Park, N.Y., the goats’ $900 annual cost is “two-thirds of what hired manpower would be,” thereby saving money on lawn care but perhaps stealing a jobs in the down economy.

As for greening your acres, going with goats will probably keep you and your begonias from contact with all the chemical goop that has been poisoning your neighbor’s poodle. And then there’s the gas saved from not using fuel-inefficient garden machines.

The $24-billion lawn and garden industry is slowly getting behind the eco-friendly movement with products like organic fertilizers made of alfalfa and kelp meal. While such products are entering the market, it’s still only a fraction of the total, with sales of around $460 million in 2008.

So in the meantime you might want to get some cute, furry goats to save your back — and the environment.

If you live near Malibu and would like to do this with clearing your land there is a guy at Malibu Cyn. and the 101 Freeway that rents his goats….I think it’s brilliant!

Mr. Snaggey Snaggleliscious

Thanks Target and GREENPEACE!

Target discontinues the sale of farmed salmon

Target has announced that all their stores will stop selling farmed salmon products. This move towards greater ocean conservation is a first by a major seafood retailer. Salmon consumption in the United States is a huge market for retailers. Salmon is second only to shrimp in seafood purchases in the United States. This announcement is sure to have a ripple affect across the entire seafood industry and will improve the health of oceans throughout the world.

fish pedicures….come on people!

O.K. so fish are not the most discerning of diners. They eat dead skin? I don’t know about you, but I find this to be soooo wierd.

Do I want fish nibbling at my toes? Hell no! This is just the kind of thing that Americans get the decadent label slapped on them for. AND what about the fish? Do they know this isn’t good for them? Are they starved and then thrown into a mix of warm water and foot soup….ugh!

What are you doing today Mary? Oh I’m just going out and having some fish eat my feet. …..Come on folks! Why would you pay to have this done, because it’s new hip and trendy? Oh how shallow of you, what about the poor tiny fish? They’re eating your disgusting toe jam.

People are a lot like fish, they move in groups together, and fall for anything that feeds them.

Ringling Bros appalling abuse…..YOU can do something

Christie Brinkley: Ringling’s Abuse of Animals ‘Absolutely Appalling’

Christie Brinkley and her kids will be no-shows at the “Cruelest Show on Earth” since receiving PETA’s letter detailing Ringling Bros.’ grim record of abusing animals. The supermodel/actor calls Ringling Bros.’ death toll “absolutely appalling”—from Clyde the lion who died of apparent heatstroke and dehydration in a hot train car to Riccardo, the 8-month-old elephant destroyed after he fell from a pedestal and fractured his legs. Nineteen elephants—three of them babies—have died at the hands of Ringling Bros. over the last decade alone. Other tragic deaths include those of two horses who were struck by a freight train as they were being unloaded from the Ringling train, a caged tiger who was shot to death by an angry Ringling trainer, a horse used by Ringling despite a chronic medical condition who collapsed and died during the circus’s animal parade, and a wild-caught sea lion who was found dead in her transport container.

Christie assured PETA, “Now that I know that, I will not be taking my kids to the circus anymore.”

Watch PETA’s video “Ringling Bros. Exposed” to see what goes on behind the scenes at the big top.

Find out what to do when the circus comes to town—and how to keep it from coming in the first place.

Forward this to a friend.

Help support PETA’s lifesaving work to stop the suffering of elephants, tigers, and other animals abused in the name of “entertainment.”