Tag Archives: rescue

Jan19

for peanut.

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peanut on the farm – rip, old girl and world champion

Peanut, the world’s oldest chicken, dead at twenty-one: The Chelsea, Michigan  clucker, certified as the oldest living chicken by Guinness last January at age twenty, died of natural causes on Christmas morning, according to its owner, Marsi Parker Darwin of the no-kill farm Darwin’s Eden. In an article last year, Darwin credited her neighbor, Todd Gillihan, with bringing global attention to the hen she rescued from a cold, abandoned egg. He “pestered me,” she said, to go for the world record, resulting in coverage in publications as far flung and prestigious as the Smithsonian Magazine’s website, Washington Post, and the Times of London. A retired librarian, Darwin authored a picture book, “My Girl Peanut & Me,” which is available for on the Darwin’s Eden site.

—

“if i hadn’t started painting, i would have raised chickens.”

-grandma moses

 

 

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source credits: ann arbor news, smithsonian.com, ann arbor observer

Feb25

elvis has left the boat.

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Heinz wants to find the man who survived nearly a month at sea with nothing but ketchup and seasonings to help him buy a new boat

Heinz is looking for people to help the company find a treasure – but it’s not gold. After they learned that a man who survived a month at sea with nothing but ketchup and seasonings, the company said it wants to find him to help him buy a new boat. But so far, they haven’t been able to find him.

In a virtual message in a bottle, the company put out a request for assistance on Instagram last week.Elvis Francois was working on his boat in St. Maarten in December when he accidentally started drifting out to sea. The weather had suddenly changed, and he said in a video released by the Colombian Navy, who rescued him, that he had lost his ability to navigate.

“I tried to [go] back to port, but I lost track because it took me a while to mount the sail and fix the sail,” he said. “…I call my friends, my coworkers. They tried to contact me, but they lost service. There was nothing else I could do than sit down and wait.”

He wrote out the word “help” on the back of his boat, and he was eventually rescued – after 24 days with nothing but “a bottle of ketchup…garlic powder and Maggi [soup].”

The navy said that officers took Francois to the Port of Cartagena to receive medical care and that he was “found to be in good health.” While there, they also started the necessary actions to help him return home.

“We’re setting this message adrift into the sea of the internet, because if anyone can help us find him, it’s you,” the company said. “If you or anyone you know can help us get in contact with Elvis Francois, please drop us a DM.”

In a statement to CBS News on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Heinz said that they want to “gift” Elvis a “new state-of-the-art boat.” That boat, they said, will be “equipped with full navigational technology to avoid another disaster in the future.” It’s currently an international effort, with Heinz markets “around the world” getting involved. “We’re hoping to spread the word far and wide so Heinz can finally gift the new boat to Elvis,” the company said.

—

“for whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.”

-e.e. cummings

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source credit: liz cohen, cbs news

Nov2

go fish!

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The Paris Aquarium Is Home to a Massive Rescued Goldfish Sanctuary 

The future rarely looks bright for an unloved goldfish. Its owner may confine it to a small bowl and deprive it of the space or stimulation it needs, or worse, flush it down the toilet while it’s still alive. But the Paris Aquarium is offering regretful pet owners a better solution: Any unwanted fish that are brought there will be cared for and given a new home in a massive tank, The Nation reports.

The French aquarium launched its goldfish rescue program two years ago, and it houses roughly 600 rescued fish today. Many of the pets that are handed over arrive in poor health. Each specimen is given medical care, including antibiotics and anti-parasite treatments, and kept in quarantine for a month before transitioning to the tank with the rest of the fish. Some goldfish don’t survive the move, but those that do often thrive, growing up to a foot in length.

People have different reasons for taking advantage of the aquarium’s service. For some, it’s a convenient—and eco-friendly—way to get rid of a pet they no longer want. When fish are disposed of in sewage systems, they face almost certain death, and when they’re released directly into a pond or river, they can grow to monstrous proportions and wreak havoc on the local ecosystem.

In other cases, pet owners see that the aquarium can provide a better life for their fish than they ever could. Goldfish can suffer from depression when they’re kept in a small, empty environment, and goldfish bowls have even been banned in some parts of the world for being inhumane. The fish sanctuary is open to members of the public to view—including anyone wishing to check up on a former pet.

—

“a goldfish is reason enough for living, if someone needs a reason.”

-martin cooley

 

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credits: michelle debczak, mental floss, the nation

Jan8

rose.

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rescued while trying to join a colony of cats in detroit

cared for by a foster family

 looking for a place to call home

i feel lucky she landed in mine

 shy and sweet and young

not quite sure what life will be like here

she came out from her hiding place

long enough for us to each check on the other

i see her natural fancy costume

of black ears and tail

snow white body

she’s now olive’s new sister

 and will be called rose

which makes her *rose kennedy

*(the cat, not to be confused with the political dynasty’s family matriarch who shared the same moniker)

—

“a kitten is, in the animal world, what a rosebud is in the garden.”

-robert southey

Jan6

looking for my cat.

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no, she has not gone missing

but keeping santa’s promise

to sweet kitty, olive –

 find her a sweet companion.

with virus, time home, holidays

sweet little kitties are hard to find

but i’m on the case

ready for the rescue

i see her on the horizon

 have one very close

to coming home. 

—

“there are no ordinary cats.”

-colette

 

 

 

 

 

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photo credit: reed.edu

Jul11

courage.

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Boars🐗, frogs🐸, naga🐲, lions🦁and tigers🐯 and elephants🐘, oh my! 

During the BBC’s coverage of the ongoing cave rescue operation in Thailand, they came across this adorable cartoon by Bangkok-based illustrators Sisidea, which caught their attention after it was shared on Facebook by the Thai Navy Seal team. 

This is what Aruni Aunhawarakorn and Jantima Manasviyoungkul (the people who drew the picture) had to say:  “We are so, so happy at the news and our cartoon shows our appreciation from the Thai people – to everyone around the world who have been involved in the search as well as those [unsung heroes] who haven’t been mentioned.” 

—

“from caring comes courage.”

-lao tzu

 

 

 

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credits: bbc news, thai navy seal team, sisidea

Mar21

and along came olive.

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tiny olive

with green eyes of two different colors

just six pounds never to grow any bigger

came into my life

quite unexpectedly 

found in the caboose of a train

a teenage mother

rescued by kind humans

and

soon to move

into to my home and family

with patience and time and space
in the little cottage
olive the cat not the oil
so sweet and playful
met
glenn frey the cat not the rocker
so reserved and timid
and they soon found a way
to peacefully co-exist
watching the world go by together.
—
“peace puts forth her olive everywhere”
-william shakespeare
Mar28

wingspan.

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at the nature center for grandie v’s 6th birthday celebration

the scientist helps us to measure our wingspans

before we take a stroll outside to find this beautiful bird

rescued and healing a broken wing

 whose wingspan we hope will return one day

and we are grateful to have our wings.

“happiness makes up for height for what it lacks in length.”

-robert frost

Aug11

yeti.

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zazzle.co

yeti, in the wild.

—

just before i left for my trip

one daughter and her family

were moving from one house to another

waiting for a closing date

so

i turned over my tiny cottage to

one daughter

one son in law

two grandies

two in-laws

two cats

and

two hives of bees.

—

 i

then

moved

into

another

daughter’s apartment

with

one daughter

 two grandies

and 

glen frey the cat not the rock star

as he was afraid of

other cats and people and bees.

and

besides

there was

no way

my cottage could hold

any more people or other creatures.  

—

my third daughter

stayed put

in her usual home

with 

one son-in-law

two grandies

and

one giant cat. 

—

while staying at my daughter’s 

glen frey jumped through her screen one day

and took off into the woods

we tried and tried to get him to return

but he just ran deeper into the trees

we called him, looked for him

we left out food and water

and finally one day 

he began to emerge

for breakfast and dinner

and

quickly left again

without as much as a nod 

before speeding off

into the wild once more.

—

 upon my return

it was time to try to capture 

the elusive woodland cat

who’d been living as a yeti

camouflaged

elusive 

wild

deep in the trees

and my mission was to

bring him home once more. 

we staked him out

during his most popular 

evening feeding time

and sure enough

he showed up

but

as i approached him 

he seemed to recognize me

yet 

he ran back into the woods

always staying just beyond my reach

then

i saw him peeking out at me

and

he slowly returned

he must have remembered

and as i 

offered him my hand

he began to purr

 turned his back

i grabbed him 

 he yelled 

it took two of us to wrestle him

 we wrapped him in a blanket

 put him in the giant cat/yeti carrier

and

i carried him off for home

with him yelling all the way

it felt like i had kidnapped

a reluctant member of  bigfoot’s cult

and

he was not happy to say the least.

he stayed up all night yelling

 yet

in the morning

he was resting 

and

he’d found his spot at home once more.

—

i’ll never know

about his yeti days

and his time on the lam

spent with woodland creatures

and

wild adventures

of all kinds.

he’ll probably never tell.

IMG_0302

glen frey, in his home again.

—

(along with the rest of the family, the other cats,

and the bees, all in their homes again)

—

“there is precious little in civilization to appeal to a yeti.”
– sir edmund hillary

 

 

Jun12

dark shadows.

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Shadow of the Cat (01)

i woke up in the middle of the night

to loud screaming

coming from

glen frey the cat not the rocker

who was downstairs

in my living room 

 shrieking

not like 

a cat

but like a rocker

being attacked by something

 i

carefully

crept

down

the

stairs

tiptoeing

expecting to find him

in a death match

with a

massive rabid opossum

or

grizzly bear

or?

as i got closer

i saw who he was

running from

and

terrified of

and

 his enemy

was his own shadow. 

running and running and running

in a circle 

it was

chasing him

nonstop

 he was terrified

running for his own survival

 i shut off the lights

called his name

 pet him

talked to him

after a while

he calmed down

finally

he laid down

exhausted

 heart pounding

i thought about

the many things 

that he might have

had to endure 

before he was rescued

and

understood 

that it all felt very real to him

as if those things were happening to him all over again

but now

he was home

and

he was safe once more.

—
“everything that we see is a shadow

cast by that which we do not see.”

– martin luther king, jr.

—

credits: universal pictures, google images