Remember back a few months ago when I shared an audio clip with you from David Sedaris’ new book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk? If not, feel free to refresh your memory right here: boccibeefs.blogspot.com/2010/09/squirrels-real-thing-and-david-sedaris.html
David Sedaris is one of Parental Unit’s favorite writers, and shortly after that post, she stumbled across a contest on a wonderful blog called: Bookhounds: Books, Garden And Dogs, written by Mary Jacobs, to possibly win…, you guessed it, the audio book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. And guess who won? Yep, we just received our audio book a few days ago! Thank you, Mary!
It comes with two CD’s of stories read by Sedaris, Elaine Stritch (of Broadway and “30 Rock” Fame), Dylan Barker, and Sian Phillips, and a bonus disc of pdf illustrations from the book by Ian Falconer.
Here I am checking it all out.
Parental Unit has already listened to the first CD of stories and proclaimed them “hilarious, poignant, dark, dead-on…and whatever other laudable things one could say, but, hey, it’s David Sedaris after all. Each of the readers are fabulous, but Elaine Stritch is is just remarkable-what a voice!
We’re going to sum it up by saying: don’t miss this book in whatever form you prefer!
When you have a spare moment, head on over to Mary’s blog at: www.maryinhb.blogspot.com to enjoy excellent book reviews and musings on her garden and dogs. We’re long-time followers. And don’t forget to enter her give-a-ways!
We’ll leave you with another Sedaris audio clip, this time from one of his first stories, “Santaland Diaries” about his job stint as an elf in Macy’s New York department store. Enjoy!
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5066175&sc=emaf
An article in today’s New York Times delivers some good news, although a bit belatedly for those kittens who were pierced “to give them a ‘goth’ appearance” and sold over the Internet for $100 per maimed feline.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a lower court conviction of animal cruelty for a dog groomer, Holly Crawford, who admitted to piercing the kittens without anesthetic. An investigator for PETA, posing as a customer, reported her to the authorities.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a lower court conviction of animal cruelty for a dog groomer, Holly Crawford, who admitted to piercing the kittens without anesthetic. An investigator for PETA, posing as a customer, reported her to the authorities.
The Court’s 19 page opinion outlined Crawford’s main defense: “that a person of normal intelligence would not know whether piercing a kitten’s ears or banding its tail is maiming, mutilating, torturing or disfiguring an animal.” Thankfully, the court unanimously disagreed.
On a lighter note… there’s still time aplenty to enter our give-a-way to win one of two signed copies of The Bond Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them, beautifully written by Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.
Paul Markow Photography
Please remember the few rules for your entry to be considered:
__ You must comment on the blog post below;
__ And be a follower of our blog, and our Facebook and Twitter pages. If you’ve already entered, please double check that you’re faithfully following in all three locations:-) And…if you don’t have a Twitter account, just let us know…we’ll try to cut you a break-ha!
__ The time for comments ends this evening at 6:00 pm EST, and the winners will be randomly chosen and announced tonight!
Good luck to ya!
We traded e-mails last night with Peggy Frezon of Peggy’s Pet Place, about her winning our Monday Musings contest. And she was kind enough to say the following: “I smile every time I open your blog” because I (that’s me, Bocci) look like so much like her dog, Corky, that she had growing up. ”So visiting your blog is an extra treat for me.” Well, she sent us a picture of her dear departed Corky, and both Parental Unit and I nearly fell off our chairs! We’ll let you be the judge-are we blood brothers or what?
Corky
Corky
Me
Photo by: John Clark
Peggy was also kind enough to share some information about Corky: He was born on a farm in Vermont, was part Airedale, part Collie, and who knows what else! And he loved to smile and chase his tail…and was so lovable! We’re sure Corky was a dear, sweet boy (if he was anything like me!), and we’re so happy that visiting our blog brings back fond memories for Peggy.
And speaking of Peggy, she’s quite the published author: She’s a full time writer for Guideposts magazine and Chicken Soup for the Soul, writes a column for Be the Change for Animals, has a book under her belt, Dieting With My Dog, and several more in the works. And she let us in on a little secret…the book she’s working on right now, Dog in the Pond, Sheep on the Roof, features Corky!
We can’t thank Peggy enough for sharing Corky with us so we could share him with you.
Born after approximately 63 days of gestation, puppies emerge in an amnion which is bitten off and eaten by the mother dog. Puppies begin to nurse almost immediately. If the litter exceeds six puppies, particularly if one or more are obvious runts, human intervention in hand-feeding the stronger puppies is necessary to ensure that the runts get proper nourishment and attention from the mother. As they reach one month of age, puppies are gradually weaned and begin to eat solid food. The mother may regurgitate partially digested food for the puppies or might let them eat some of her solid food. By the age of about seven weeks, puppies no longer depend on nursing for food. Although they may continue trying to nurse, the mother dog usually refuses after this age, though she might let them occasionally nurse for comfort.
At first, puppies spend ninety percent of their time sleeping and the rest feeding. During their first two weeks, a puppy’s senses all develop rapidly. Puppies open their eyes about nine to eleven days following birth. At first, the retina is poorly developed and their vision is poor. Puppies are not able to see as well as adult dogs. In addition, puppies’ ears remain sealed until about thirteen to seventeen days after birth, after which they respond more actively to sounds. While between two to four weeks old, puppies usually begin to growl, bite, wag their tails, and bark.
Puppies develop very quickly during their first three months, particularly after their eyes and ears open and they are no longer completely dependent on their mother. Their coordination and strength improve, they spar with their litter-mates, and begin to explore the world outside the nest. They play wrestling, chase, dominance, and tug-of-war games.
http://postonfire.com/Pets/puppy_names
Scientists have discovered that cats have a perfect balance. When the cat found himself out of balance, it’s ear balance organ will be notified immediately to its brain, the brain receives the signal after the cat’s first action is to begin to reverse their own bodies, because of its physical flexibility are particularly good, At a time when to reverse the body, first of all put its forelimbs are stretched out, this is to ensure that it reversed the position deviated from the no longer happen. http://msary80.baidu.ws/17845/cute+puppies.html
Forelimb in turn, the hindlimb is also transferred, the tail has been off, which ensures that the balance with the direction of landing.
Moreover, the moment at touchdown, cats have strong forelimbs, coupled with its deep clavicle, together with palm-like to enable it to withstand high impact. In addition, cats have a very interesting characteristics, that is, they allow themselves to relax all the muscles at once, at the moment of touchdown
To prevent it from joints with a sprained muscle.
http://msary80.easyjournal.com/entry.aspx?eid=3998620
