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The Fourth National Dog Blog Carnival is Live!

Hosted this month by WayCoolDogs, the carnival is joined by twenty dog bloggers. Read my article on how to prevent and treat Canine Cancer (hint: The Big C = Change!)

Musician Moby has teamed up once again with HSUS to help alleviate the suffering of animals. Proceeds from the sale of his latest CD, titled “Wait For Me” priced at only 14.98 and purchased through Humane Domain go to help HSUS’s efforts to improve the lives of animals raised for food.
The first 90 albums purchased through Humane Domain (of which mine was one:-) are personally autographed.

I’m working on my galleries. I’m still in the process of organizing them, but if you’d like to take a peek, you can find the links for three galleries under the Creatura link on the Nav bar.

Listening to Cougar is an anthology of essays about the mysterious and elusive cougar, also known as puma, mountain lion and panther, which once roamed the entire country, but now can be found in only 14 states, from the Rockies westward.

Cara Blessley Lowe, writer, photographer, and co-founder of the Cougar Fund partnered with cognitive ethologist and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Marc Bekoff to edit the collection, the contributors of which include among others, journalists, poets, scientists, and hunters.

The common theme than runs throughout the diverse collection is one of awe that each author experiences upon encountering traces of the cougar, or many times, the cougar itself.

Some of the meetings are intentional as in the case of hunters and scientists, but most are by chance. The reactions of humans varies – from one of liberation and exhiliaration to terror, most humorously in the case of Marc Bekoff who “knows” how to behave when encountering a cougar, but reverts to instinct, running away while screaming, and who humbly admits that had he not been dehydrated from a three hour bike ride earlier that day, he would surely have “peed his pants”.

No matter what the situation, whether it be a chance observation of a lioness and her cubs, or the heartbreaking witnessing of a female cougar being shot out of a tree (an illegal but common practice due to the inability of humans to distinguish male from female cougars) each human was humbled and grateful to have been in the presence of this magnificent creature.

Jane Goodall’s forward and Cara Blessley Lowe’s introduction outline the history and struggle of the cougar and the challenges it faces for survival in the politcal and conservation arenas. As Jane Goodall notes, the cougar’s survival “depends on our tolerance of it living among us.” Education about cougars (and other wildlife) is greatly needed.

Statistics show that the number of humans who die annually of bee stings (20) is equal to the number killed by cougars in since 1900.

This book is a testament of the respect a wide range of concerned humans holds for wild animals and a call to action for those who can help save the cougar from extinction.

1. Local rescue groups and shelters – Even if you didn’t adopt a pet from a local rescue group or shelter, consider that these organizations are part of your community. These are the people who work tirelessly to find owners of lost dogs, or often to find homes for those pets who have been abandoned. They are the people taking care of the feral cat population, working to stop the population from growing, and to ease the suffering of those in colonies that already exist. They work endlessly to clean up the problems that other humans have created. By donating your time or money, you can help them do their job, and assume responsibility for the well being of your own community.

2. The Leone Cosens memorial feeding fund“>The Soi Dog Foundation on the island of Phuket in Thailand is working to set an example for Asian countries in controlling the huge populations of stray dogs and cats, and improving their lives. In six years, the group has spayed and neutered over 23,000 dogs and cats on the island, as well as feeding up to 600 dogs who congregate at the island’s temples. This is in addition to caring for over 200 animals at their shelter. The Soi Dog Foundation needs your help to sponsor care for dogs, and to help buy land for a new shelter.

3. Amsdale Gessessee Foundation in Ethiopia has appeared previously on this blog when Kim Santini featured a painting of one very special dog looking to find a safe home in the United States as part of her painting-a-dog-a-day project. The Amsale Gessesse Memorial Foundation operates on the principle of nonviolence and respect for all life and its founder’s deep and abiding belief in biocentricity and the interconnectidness of all life. The foundation promotes non hierarchical and non-exploitative relationships between human beings and all other life forms.

4. The Rabies Challenge Fund Vaccinations pose serious health threats to our animal companions, including cancer and behavioral issues. World renown veterinarian Jean Dodds is raising money for research to support the decrease in the number of rabies vaccines required by law. Think it can’t happen to your pet? Think again.

5. Shelter Animal Reiki Association was created to foster the development of Reiki programs in shelters to improve the lives of animals there, as well as to educate the public about the benefits of Reiki. The group is currently raising funds for research conducted to support their cause.

6. The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild lands through careful science, international conservation, education, and the management of the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together, these activities change individual attitudes toward nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in sustainable interaction on both a local and a global scale. WCS is committed to this work because it believes it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth.

7. The Cougar Fund is working to protect the cougar (also known as a mountain lion, puma or panther) throughout the Americas by educating children and adults on the value of mountain lions, by funding and promoting the use of sound science, and by monitoring state policies to assure a lasting place for this graceful creature. Hunters are depleting the population. Help the Cougar Fund save the cougar from extinction.

8. The Raptor Trust is one of the premier bird rehabilitation centers in the United States. It’s mission is threefold:

1.To provide free care and assistance to injured, sick, or orphaned wild birds.
2.To educate people about wild birds, especially birds of prey.
3.To provide a humane example for others.

The Trust includes a hospital with state of the art equipment, housing for birds and an educational facility. The trust’s advocacy for and commitment toward birds of prey for 25 years has made them a leader in the field of conservation and rehabilitation.

9. The Humane Society of the United States works on many fronts to alleviate pain and suffering of animals. HSUS provides an email alert service which notifies those interested on what issues HSUS is working on, often lobbying for support through political action. They make it hard not to participate by supplying readers with form letters to sign and contact information for the appropriate parties. It literally takes you only seconds to help a cause, thanks to HSUS.

10. Safelawns is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the planet – starting in your own back yard. Their mission is to create a broad-based coalition of non-and for-profit organizations committed to educating society about the benefits of environmentally responsible lawn care and gardening, and effect a quantum change in consumer and industry behavior.The health of pets is dependent on the health of the environment, and pesticides on lawns that run into the water pose a threat to all life, especially the dogs and cats who play on them.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made the news this week when they called President Obama’s swatting and killing of a fly an execution. The host of the radio program I was listening to mentioned that when he heard the report that he thought it must be a parody of the news. When he discovered that PETA was serious, he was incredulous. “They’re flies for god’s sake! – disease carrying flies!”
PETA, in this man’s opinion had just lost all credibility.

For those who would dismiss the significance of insects, I recommend this fascinating article on the consciousness of cockroaches and other insects.

Will understanding the consciousness of insects lead to greater compassion toward them?

“Respect the old and cherish the young. Even insects, grass and trees you must not hurt”. T’ai-shang kan-ying p’ien, a Confucian-Taoist treatise. Attributed to Ko Hung

On the fence? Debating the practical v. the spiritual aspects of this conundrum? Worry no more! PETA has graciously supplied you with a humane solution for getting rid of flies.

My dog Dasher hates the car. Always has. Many years ago, I wanted to train her to hop into the back of the car and go into her crate, so I could drive to the woods nearby where we liked to walk. A fan of clicker training, I set about my task full of confidence that Dasher would quickly learn that jumping into the car and getting into the crate was a good thing.

Part of the success of clicker training depends on random rewards. The concept is that giving a “jackpot” in the form of a lot of really good treats at random intervals will turn a dog into a gambler, therefore making her more likely to perform a task in the hopes of hitting that jackpot. I armed myself with tiny chunks of raw meat, the best treat a dog could hope for.

I gave Dasher the commands “Hop in!” and “Hop out!”, rewarding her for each success. When I knew that she “got it” I started rewarding more randomly. The problem, though, was that each time after a random number of ins and outs, and a random number of rewards, when I planned to end the exercise by closing the door of the crate behind her and driving home from the woods, Dasher sat on the pavement and refused to hop in. I knew that Dasher just knew, somehow, when I was going to shut the crate door.

Marc Bekoff talks about the importance of narrative when observing animals, and Temple Grandin notes the fact that neither Jane Goodall nor Dian Fossey, renown for their studies of chimps and gorillas started out as ethologists, but were still able to observe behaviors and make educated conclusions about them.

I’m not saying my discovery about my dog was new or earth shattering, but I can say with confidence that Dasher clearly understood my intentions.

In one of my favorite books, The Intention Experiment, Lynne McTaggart tells the story of how Cleve Backster, a leading expert in the field of lie detection, used a polygraph machine in an attempt to find out how quickly water would travel up the stem of a plant. When the results of his experiment turned out to be the opposite of what he thought they would be, he decided that he needed to stimulate the plant somehow to create an alarm response. When he saw that dipping a leaf in a cup of coffee did nothing, he thought about burning the leaf with a match. It was his thought and intention to burn the leaf which elicited the response he’d been looking for.

If plants can understand our intentions, then surely animals can too.

I have often heard the question posed as to whether shelter animals know that they’re going to die. Temple Grandin wrote that she gets the same question often by her students about animals in slaughter houses. Temple has worked in the meat industry to design better facilities for cattle, believing that humans have a responsibility to treat livestock humanely. in her book, Animals Make Us Human, she pointed to the symbiotic relationship we have with cattle, as well as how the cruelty of the natural world can impact livestock, I think, in part, to make their deaths easier to accept, and further, concluded that they do not know that they are going to die, since cattle act no differently when they are marching to their deaths than they do otherwise. I don’t know that much about cattle. I do know that Temple observed the cattle in a facility that she designed to help keep cattle calm. Perhaps the cattle, aware of her good intentions, were able to remain calm, knowing that they were going to die. (Temple also remarked that she thinks that cattle lead far better lives than most dogs these days.)

I believe that our intentions impact everthing around us, and that animals, though they may appear unaware, can feel the effects. I think shelter animals do know what has happened to those that have gone before them, and what’s likely going to happen to them.

Lynne McTaggart is running her own intention experiment that anyone can participate in. She provided information on it in The Intention Experiment, and on her website, including instructions for how to practice using your thoughts to change the world, including healing for others. (Key components to doing this effectively are meditation and the concept of becoming one with that or whom you wish to heal. This is very similar to how Reiki is practiced.) If more people focused their intentions on making the world a better place rather than having no intentions about anything, we’d see a big change, including surrounding the fate of shelter animals.

My friend Walter hates when people, as he puts it, try to “put words on things” – things like movies or music. A jazz musician and a fan of shoot ‘em up action movies, he likes to let himself be carried away by the experience without any need for analysis. His wife Gayle, an editor who is embroiled in the world of words and a fan of as she describes them, dreary angst-ridden foreign films, can’t understand Walter’s view. After an evening of watching a movie that they can actually agree on, Gayle the wordsmith needs to talk about it, while Walter, the artist, refuses.

Being both an artist and a writer, I can understand both sides. Sometimes too much analysis or too many big words get in my way. Walter defies anyone to aptly define precisely what it is about a movie that can take us into a preposterous world and make us buy into it, to feel it in our hearts, or in the same vein to explain why particular musical passages resonate with us. I agree that it’s impossible to describe these things in a way that does justice to how we actually feel when we experience them.

But I do understand the need for words as well when describing something that’s experiential, like Reiki. I need the words to help me understand it better so that I can be better prepared to explain things clearly to others. For instance, non-duality is a big concept in Reiki. My first Reiki class didn’t really touch on non-duality, but as my studies deepened and I heard the term being used often, I needed to find out more about it.

Non-duality is oneness, or to be at one with the universe. (Don’t worry if you don’t know what non-duality is, or even if you don’t want to know what it is, I’m not going to get into details. If you just go with the flow you’ll make it through this wordy post just fine.)

In my pursuit of finding out more about just what the heck non-duality was, I learned that it’s a common concept in eastern philosophies – a given that’s completely alien to the culture I grew up in. I read that masters don’t have a need to “put words on it” – to talk about it would be to view it as something separate, therefore creating duality. By the time I had gotten about this far in my studies, my head was spinning. I got the concept, and yet I didn’t. That’s the difference between reading about something and experiencing it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about words lately, in specific, the word ‘energy’ after reading Nancy’s comment to a post about Reiki in which she said she thought of Reiki as energy work. I’ve heard the word ‘energy’ used several times in the past few weeks by a lot of people who were referring to a lot of different things. I have heard of Reiki described as an energetic practice, and in fact, I described it that way when explaining why Reiki can’t be learned from a book. Reiki is also described as vibrational.

I came across this September 13, 2007 interview on the Phyllis Lei Furumoto’s radio program, Reiki – Balancing Essence and Form, with Pamela Miles who spoke about use of the word ‘energy’ and the vibrational nature of Reiki, relating it to what physicists call the unified field, and who also described it as primordial consciousness, the “non-dual ground of being – touching that part of us that doesn’t die”, and “the part that’s balanced.”

The interview is chock full of complicated words and phrases, but together, Phyllis and Pamela managed to pull them apart and put them into simpler terms that were more easily understandable.

Interestingly enough, many of the words used, like “vibration” “consciousness” and “balance” got me thinking more deeply – not only about Reiki, to which they are indeed important, but also about flower essences and homeopathy. As Pamela described Reiki and primordial consciousness, I remembered how flower essences are described – as non-aromatic liquids that capture the vibrational pattern of the flowers used in their creation, and which are also called ‘liquid consciousness’. And as my mind wandered farther down its path of thought, I remembered that homeopathic remedies, that when used in their highest capacity, are chosen to match the spirit of the recipient, and are created by diluting a substance to the point where only the vibration, or memory of it remains.

The concept of memory, or ‘remembering’ came up later in the interview when Pamela described how healing takes place during a Reiki treatment. Reiki practitioners often talk about trusting that Reiki will go where it’s needed. I was struck by Pamela’s comment that Reiki doesn’t really “go” anywhere, but likened what happens during a Reiki treatment as the resonation that happens between tuning forks. The practitioner’s hands spontaneously tune to the vibration of recipient’s wellness – both are reminded of the “pulsation of wellness”. The tuning fork is the example that Sharon Callahan also uses to describes how flower essences work by giving off a harmonious frequency and drawing that which is out of harmony to it until both vibrate in harmony.

Reiki, flower essences and homeopathy are three distinctly different things, but they share a lot of the same qualities. Although their creators were a diverse group from different places and times in history – a Buddhist of Samurai descent from Japan, a surgeon turned immunologist from Great Britain, and a physician from Germany – all incorporated both spirituality and intention into their healing methods, using a radically different mindset than the one from which western medicine springs. One could say that each truly embodies the essence of compassion.

Words sometimes become white noise when they are bandied about too freely. Everyone’s heard the phrase: body, mind and spirit that has become just so much just blah blah blah by now. The precision and care taken in choosing the words used to describe Reiki in the interview, however, underscored for me the importance of them, not only for Reiki but also for other truly holistic modalities who share a similar perspective.

So. …words. We hear them all the time in different contexts. Listen to them closely and choose them wisely. Sometimes they will be most effective in ways we never intend or imagine.

Red Fox Cub

The deer walk the streets of my town almost side by side with humans, often giving birth right along the strip of grass between sidewalk and street. Last year I found a fawn next to my garbage can, hidden in plain sight by its mother. Mother deer leave their fawns who are not old enough to have a detectable scent on their own until they are old enough to travel. It’s safer for them that way.

A possum took up residence in my shed one year, groundhogs have lived under it and skunks have lived under both my porch and my neighbor’s. I love to watch the vultures visit my neighbor’s chimney daily from my third floor office window, have been startled by raccoons in trees on my block, and delighted to find turkeys taking up residence in the bushes down the street. I’ve spotted coyotes, in among several other areas of town, the driveway next door. Several friends have been visited by bears on their patios; one was surprised this spring to find one sitting on her front porch.

Some neighbors view wildlife as pests, shooing away deer and setting traps for smaller animals, while others feel sorry for them and feed them. I’ve sat on both sides of the fence.

These species have been living and surviving among humans for years. They don’t usually need our help (which often comes in the form of feeding them bread, just about the worst thing nutritionally for them) but I have been moved to step in on a couple of occasions. One was recently when I called Animal Control to alert them to a deer with a broken leg in the neighborhood, and a goose in the park whose leg was injured as well. I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be for either animal, but thought someone should know.

The Animal Control Officer told me not unkindly that both animals would be left as they were, to live or to die as nature took its course. It seemed like the best course of action to take, since they haven’t been able to catch the goose to get it to the Raptor Trust , one of the premier bird rehabilitation centers in the United States that we are fortunate to have almost in our back yard – only minutes away in Millington.

The other time must have been three or four years ago already, when my path crossed that of a sickly fox. A client of mine, Beryl, had been feeding him in her back yard. She thought he’d been hit by a car, as his tail appeared mangled, and she hoped to get him strong enough to recover and survive. I saw the fox one day while taking care of her kitties. He approached cautiously as I pulled into the driveway. The fox was small and his tail was indeed in a sorry state. We looked each other in the eye, and he skittered away when I got out of the car. After I fed the cats, I put out an offering for him, a slice of turkey, hoping he’d come back for it.

I was intrigued by the fox, as the fox is one of my favorite species, though one that I didn’t know much about before that day. I started reading the minute I got home. I discovered in my research that the fox most likely had not been hit by a car but was suffering from mange. I mentioned this to my sister during a phone conversation. She immediately googled ‘fox mange’ and found the National Fox Welfare Society in the UK, whose goal is eliminating Sarcoptic mange in foxes there. Unbeknownst to the little fox, there was a small army of humans, including many who had never even seen him, prepared to help him.

I immediately called Beryl who was planning a trip to the UK herself a few days later to let her know that the society provides a homeopathic treatment that’s proven to be extremely effective in the cure of mange. Administering it requires feeding the fox food with the remedy added to it. The National Fox Welfare Society believes so strongly in their mission that they will provide the remedy to homeowners in the UK, whether they wish to pay for it or not.

Beryl returned from her trip with a bottle and started dosing immediately. When I took care of Beryl’s cats, I brought precious raw venison and duck (human grade, preservative and antibiotic free!) that I feed my dogs to add to the cause. I wanted to be sure Foxy Loxy, as we had come to call him, was eating well.

I was relating the story to a group of fellow writers at a conference. One woman felt compelled to speak up. She was strongly opposed to the feeding of wildlife under any circumstances. While it’s true that with or without our interference or help that the cycle of much of the wildlife around us, including illness, injury, and inevitably, death, continues regardless, the undeniable effect that one small fox had on a small army of humans across continents proves in my mind that our intentions to stop the suffering of any creature cannot be wrong.

Springtime came and one day, Foxy Loxy didn’t show up. Despite our best efforts, little Foxy Loxy had passed away. No doubt, his mange was too advanced by the time we started dosing. Beryl’s husband found him curled up in the basement window well behind the house.

My eulogy for Foxy Loxy-

Transformation

Winter comes, invitation
to rest. Sleep is divine
but temporary
oblivion.

Cold seeps up from
the cellar, flames
rage. Wind carries
smoke, the rocker
creaks.

Next time you see
a red fox in snow:
recognize the victory
of spirit.

Summertime and the livin’ is supposed to be easy… but summer can sometimes pose a unique set of challenges to animals. Luckily, there’s an Anaflora flower essence for almost anything unusual that can come your animal’s way.

Flower essences are non-aromatic liquids that capture the vibrational pattern of plants chosen for their healing properties. Anaflora flower essences are formulated especially for animals by Sharon Callahan on Mount Shasta, in California. Flower essences are administered by placing a few drops of the essence or essence formula into your animal’s water or onto her food after tapping the bottle against the palm of your hand. Often the results are startlingly quick.

Here’s my list of handy summer time essences:

Begone!
Assists in ridding your pet of fleas and parasites, including offering birds relief from mites. This formula has been potentized to specific homeopathic standards and should not be altered.

Fur and Feather
Used to encourage harmony between cats and birds in the garden.

Saint Francis Formula for Injured Birds
This comes in handy if you haven’t had a chance to give your cat the Fur and Feather remedy yet, and also if birds fly injure themselves after flying into windows.

Captivity
For injured birds or wild animals in care at sanctuaries where they must be kept for a long period of time for rehabilitation purposes, this formula helps balance wild animals experiencing captivity shock. Best used for two weeks to a month.

Recovery Remedy
For recovery from physical trauma, helps repair nerve damage after an accident.

Emotional Balancing and Healing Spray
Resores balance during and after times of emotional or physical stress and can be combined with Recovery Remedy or Missing You.

Missing You
Helps pets who miss their humans during extended periods of work travel or vacation.

Because of the close connection you and your animal share, it’s beneficial if you take a few drops of the remedy along with your animal companion, either as a form of communion with your animal friend, or if you are facing the same challenges as your animal friends.

For more detailed information about Flower Essences, check out the articles on my Articles and Ebooks page.