Tag Archives: life

mistaken.

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A worried animal lover was left red-faced when the baby hedgehog she carefully nursed overnight and rushed to an animal hospital turned out to be a fluffy HAT BOBBLE.
The pom-pom next to its bowl of food 

A wildlife hospital just solved a hilarious case of mistaken identity.

On Thursday, a woman brought in a baby hedgehog to the Lower Moss Nature Reserve and Wildlife Hospital in Cheshire, England — only to be told it wasn’t an animal in need,  but a beanie hat pop-pom.

The caring woman had picked up the ‘hedgehog’ from the side of the road after she noticed it “hadn’t moved or pooped all night,” reported U.K. newspaper The Independent.

“From a distance, you take it at face value. She didn’t handle it at all — she scooped it in a box with some cat food and left it alone in a warm, dark place,” veterinarian Janet Kotze, told the paper.

“She did everything so well. She barely peeked at it because she didn’t want to stress it out.”

“It was pretty obvious to us but I can also see how she was mistaken,” she recalled. “She said, ‘You’re joking! Oh my goodness, how did I do that?’ ”

“She was so concentrated on doing the right thing. She was concerned it hadn’t moved or even pooed — that would be spooky if it had,” Kotze added.

Hedgehog
A real-life hedgehog

The wildlife hospital wrote of the rescue attempt on  Facebook, “Our hearts melted as a kind soul thought she was rescuing a baby hedgehog,” as they jokingly nicknamed the pop-pom ‘hoglet.’

Despite the mistake, the reserve shared that the “adorable” new visitor “still got all the love, complete with some cozy TLC.”

“Remember, kindness knows no bounds, even when it’s to a faux furry friend! 🐾,” the wildlife hospital added while highlighting the importance of rescuing hedgehogs in vulnerable situations.

“Please remember, if you spot a hedgehog out during the day, it’s a sign something’s not right. Pop them in a box with a warm source and seek help from your local vets. Let’s keep our prickly friends safe!”

“he was so benevolent, so merciful a man that, in his mistaken passion, he

would have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain.”

-douglas william jerrold

p.s. confession:  this could have easily been me. especially if i didn’t have my glasses on. 

source credits: escher walcott, people, the independent, kennedy news media photo,
brandi ettis, getty images, lower moss nature reserve

we are made from stories.

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a lovely break

spent with my sister, my aunt, and her 20 spiritual sisters

each incredibly accomplished

making the world better

in her own  way

going from place to place

person to person

greeted warmly

welcomed in

with each interaction

we learned more about my aunt, the sister

her own stories, her own accomplishments

how she began on this path, became one of them, learned from them, grew to lead them,

now traveling with them into the next stage of their lives

putting together the people and places in her life

that have meant, and continue to mean

so much to her

she has been happy and much loved

on our last night they all sang to us

after a shared meal

gifting us with a blessing and best wishes.

“listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. we are made from stories.”

*-mia couto

*António Emílio Leite Couto, better known as Mia Couto, is a Mozambican writer. He won the Camões Prize in 2013, the most important literary award in the Portuguese language, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2014.

 

image credit: from crayon

in quietness.

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in my room on a beautiful morning while visiting.

“in quietness the soul expands.”

-*rockwell kent

*rockwell kent was an american painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager

disappearing acts.

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on world sleep day

 

“for disappearing acts,

it’s hard to beat what happens to the eight hours

supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.”

-doug larson, american newspaper columnist

 

 

 

 

photo credit: the daily mail, elizabeth spence (archie the rescue dog and nora)

the passing parade.

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the diag at center of the university of michgan campus

on a beautiful day

 a good people watching place to be.

“i’m still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to.

for me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.”

-garry trudeau

 

-Garry is an american satirist whose comic strip, doonesbury,

reflected social and political life in the united states during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

kids watching kids.

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where are those kids going and what are they up to?

today we went back to the farm

to see how it has changed since our fall visit

there were no leaves

there were no pumpkins

there were lots of new babies

there was not a lot of green

but the animals were as sweet as ever

and that never changes.

‘to teach children that animals have certain rights

creates in their minds a respect and regard for life.’

*-caroline earle white

*Caroline Earle White founded the first animal shelter in the United States in 1869. Born on September 28, 1833 in Philadelphia, Penn., White became an influential figure not only in animal welfare, but also fought for women’s suffrage and equality. White and a group of 30 women activists created the Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (WPSPCA), America’s first official animal shelter. Later known as the Women’s Humane Society, the organization pioneered programs that helped save homeless animals and employed animal cruelty officers to prevent and punish animal abuse. The organization still operates today as the Women’s Animal Center.

on leap day, heed the gap.

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Zanzibar – Kirks Red Colobus Monkey, leaping from tree canopy
photo: Bernard Castelein

toads, rabbits, certain bird species, kangaroos and wallabies hop and jump.

by contrast frogs, hares and jackrabbits and monkeys leap,

the latter

routinely covering the distance from one large tree to another in a single leap.

“the most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps.”
*david lloyd george
*uk prime minister, 1916-1922,
one of the 20th century’s most famous radicals.
the first any only welshman to this office

 

 

private.

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is it really, though?

what would stop anyone from just walking around the sign,

unsure of where the private part begins and ends?

or to test the boundaries?

 

“there is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.”

*George Eliot, Felix Holt: The Radical 1866

 

*Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, (who changed her name because she wanted her writing to be taken seriously), was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and widely recognized as one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, the Radical, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda.

monkey business.

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apes playfully tease each other just like humans

Joking around is a key element of human interaction — one that starts emerging in babies as young as 8 months old, before they can even speak. Now, a new study is suggesting that the human instinct to play goes further back than previously thought.

An international team of cognitive biologists and primatologists documented playful teasing in the four species of great apes: orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. They identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors, indicating that “the prerequisites for humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago,” per a press release.

“Similar to teasing in children, ape playful teasing involves one-sided provocation, response waiting in which the teaser looks toward the target’s face directly after a teasing action, repetition, and elements of surprise,” explained lead author Isabelle Laumer.

The concept of playful primates isn’t new — Jane Goodall previously documented such behavior — but this is the first study to systematically analyze it. “We hope that our study will inspire other researchers to study playful teasing in more species in order to better understand the evolution of this multifaceted behavior,” Laumer said.

“the very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen,

the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay…

you’re either free to play, or you’re not.”

-john cleese

 

 

source credits: Proceedings of the Royal Society, Laumer, Winkler, Rossano,  Cartmill

photo credit: anup shah, getty

shared.

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 a delightful surprise

getting back into the car

thinking of my next stop

  a gentle knock on my window

opened to hear a smiling stranger say,

‘i just wanted to give these to you, have a beautiful day.’

 holding this lovely little bouquet

making my way back into the day

made all the sweeter with this gift.

 

“happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.”

john arrigan