Think of foxy hair, and Tamara Dobson, aka Foxy Cleopatra might come to mind. Yet this interesting -well what is it, a hairy wheatpaste? - by fairly unknown artist Streetar somewhere in NYC suggests an entirely different form of animal meets hair. It looks fairly thin - I love that you can still see the outline of bricks under it. Like these amazing hair hats by recently deceased Japanese pop artist and vide director Nagi Noda, who tragically died last month aged only 35. I kind of love how ridiculously sleek they are. My hair sometimes does a good approximation of small furry animals but it certainly doesn't look like this! Below are two dogs.

And elephants, lions, walruses and bears, oh my!

And speaking of Foxy Cleopatra, I kind of love these images of her- the bottom right is with Woody Allen; can you tell she was a former model? Especially the ones with the same fabric-as-furniture, so chic. My mother does the same with flowery Ralph Lauren shirts and beadspreads, but somehow it doesn't quite have the same effect.

]]> http://sorryapologies.wordpress.com/?p=351 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:46:35 +0000 blonderblondest http://sorryapologies.da.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/the-immortality-of-animals-and-human-dust/

1

Above us          the choking gray

Sky      looms.

Tonight            

            In bed

            With you

            I would             crush

            The velvet

            Star over          us

                        With     lush

                                    Kisses,

                                                Wet

                                                            As womb

                                                And      trees,

                                                            Each limb         green

                                                            As it

                                                            Touches           us-

                                                                                      Green

                                                                                                As it    

                                                                                                Bends

                                                                                                To drunken      

                                                                                    Leaves.

2

I love                the feeling of

Black   mahogany

Breaking

            Sound, but

            Making love

            Enormous         branches

            Moving in

            Wind

                        Creak   in

                                                Bed

                                                Waiting

                                                            To once

                                                            Grow leaves     again

                                                            Recrossing        each

                                                                                       Other

                                                                                                And other

                                                                                                Destroying

                                                                                                Each other        or

                                                                                                                        Over taking

                                                                                                                        Others

                                                                                                            Without sound.

3

I can                 see myself in

Front    of a

Mirror

            Waiting

            For a wrinkle

            To appear,

            A hair               to turn gray

            And fall

                        Out.

                                    The possibility

                                                            Of youth

                                                            Is but a

                                                            Wafer              

                                                                        On my

                                                                        Tongue.         Your

                                                                                                Before

                                                                                                Me

                                                                                                Wandering.

                                                                                                Anyway,

                                                                                                It is there-

                                                                                                Standing

                                                                                    Between her legs

                                                                                    Until

                                                            My tears are rain,

                                                                                    Until

                                    My breath is wind,

                                                                                    Until

I am dirt again.

But his history is one of many many reminders that our society as a whole is far tool casual about how we treat animals. Harvey was, as far as we can tell, regularly beaten and hurt before the DSPCA rescued him. And unfortunately, this is not an isolated story. All the time, dogs are mistreated and abandoned in the most appalling circumstances. As long as this goes on, we have failed as a society.

I am writing this here because those organisations, like the DSPCA and their equivalents, that protect dogs and other animals from abuse deserve our support. And there are many dogs in rescue shelters and pounds that need good homes - they are a deserving cause... And if you see an animal being treated cruelly, do something about it.

Fireball
Originally uploaded by *.kerri.*

Rest, Fireball. May you find lots of nooks to hide in. We love you.

February 1993-October 4, 2008

In storytelling, dire wolves tend to represent the darkest side of fallen human nature, clawing its way to the surface when we come to the end of our own strength...something dark, instinctual, and powerful...<sigh!>

As soon as the instructor started talking, I knew I was in trouble.  This was not a class designed for the intermediate to advanced photographer.  This was really a class for beginners with their tiny new point and shoots. Even though there were a handful of us with nice digital SLRs, most of the class had point and shoots and struggled to understand some of the simplest functions on their cameras. And when it came for the instructor to show folks how to use Photoshop, there were two of us in the class that knew more about Photoshop that the instructor did.  

In his defense though, I will say he did have some really nice photos of both the animals in the zoo (he is one of the zoo's official photographers) and other animals and landscapes.  He is just not that great of a teacher and the zoo should have narrowed the scope of the class to beginners. 

Anywho.... I got to walk around the zoo for two days shooting photographs and working on some specific techniques.  Here are a few photos below.  The rest of the photos are at my smugmug site. 

More photos from camp!! I don't think this lavender bush was happy to have this host on it. I don't think they were meant to be there.

I looked up in my pest book and found that they are Red & Black Horehound Bugs (Agonscilis rutila), and they suck the sap out of native plants. Well, the lavender is not a native, so all the more reason for it not to be too happy!!

Unwanted guests feed on the lavender bush in the camp's garden. By the look of it, they are doing a bit more than feeding!! I think spring has sprung!! :-)

I have not mentioned it much for fear of raising concerns that I am both a crazy cat lady and/or a bad pet owner, but I moved down to the U.S. without my kitties, Wilbur and Coco. Instead, my idea was that they would stay with my friend who is renting my house in Canada until I settled in down here.

But a bad thing happened. My friend has a dog. And while the dog has no issue with kitties, she is rambunctious and overly friendly, and would bound up to her new furry housemates wanting to say hello and perhaps even engage in some harmless play. It became apparent that neither Wilbur nor Coco could tell the difference between a bounding, tail-wagging dog and one that wanted to rip their heads off and eat them for lunch. Distressed and miserable, they literally moved out and into my next-door-neighbour's house, seemingly heartbroken that their family had abandoned them and left them with a stinking Scottish terrier.

To say this caused me many weepy and sleepless nights is an understatement. I am disturbingly, maternally attached to the cats -- they were like little rays of sunshine in my life, both real love junkies who adore their people.

My neighbours, bless them, were happy to provide a safe and dog-free haven for a few weeks until I could arrange to bring the cats down. And finally ... finally!!! ... the children's father drove them down to the U.S. this weekend, Canadian Thanksgiving.

Let me assure people who feel cats are cold, unfeeling and dumb of one thing: they are far smarter and far more attached to the people in their lives than even I realized. As soon as their carrier bags were zipped open, those two cats came leaping out and knew exactly who we were and that they were finally reunited with us. There was purring, trilling, rolling around on their backs for tummy rubs, leg-rubbing, and more purring before they even got down to the serious business of checking out their new house. They knew who we were, they remembered, they wondered where the hell we'd gone and it was very clear that they were elated to be back with their family despite an 11-hour drive.

It's only been two days now and they're wandering the house like they own it, sleeping on our legs every night, and purring with delight every time we glance at them. I am so happy to have them back!

the heat killed my fish

I came home Tuesday night to find all but one of them (my tough betta Xerxes) no longer swimming. As I took them out of the tank, I realized that the water was warm to the touch (my fish can't handle that kind of heat! my poor babies). By the next night, Xerxes had also been taken by the heat...

Casualties of the 2008 Heat wave

2 Cory Cats (the Hunchbacks)
2 Golden Platies (the Spartans)
1 Mickey Mouse Platy (Mickey)
1 Betta (Xerxes)

Rest in peace my friends... I will miss you.

(for those of you who don't know, yes I am sad about my fish, no I didn't cry, no I'm not one of those crazy fish ladies who think of my fish as people, I'll just miss being able to watch them swim, and untill the heat is fixed, they can never be replaced)

From The View

Anjana has been helping zoo keeper China York look after 23-day-old cubs Mitra and Shiva at TIGERS (The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species) in South Carolina, US.

The chimp took on the crucial surrogate role after the youngsters were separated from their mother. from The Sun

The Bible doesn't give us much to go in when it says that human beings are created in God's image:

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." (Gen. 1:26, NRSV)

Later theology has tried to fill in the gaps by attributing a unique characteristic to humanity that mirrors God in some way, usually rationality or free will.

This has also frequently been taken to imply that human beings are superior to all other life on earth and hence entitled to exploit the rest of creation for their own purposes. (A not entirely implausible reading of the passage above.)

But biological science has made it more and more difficult to exclude animals from the possession of at least some degree of rationality and other candidates for human uniqueness, calling it into question. It's also become questionable whether there is an immaterial soul "infused" at some point in the evolutionary process that can account for human uniqueness. Development with continuity seems to be nature's rule.

Consequently, more recent theologians have been re-thinking what it means to say that humans are created in the divine image.

For example, Stanley Hauerwas and John Berkman write:

the only significant theological difference between humans and animals lies in God's giving humans a unique purpose. Herein lies what it means for God to create humans in God's image. A part of this unique purpose is God's charge to humans to tell animals who they are, and humans continue to do this by the very way they relate to other animals.

Others have made similar suggestions, saying that humans are created in God's image in that they reflect the lordship of God to the rest of creation. This is the true meaning of "dominion": we are God's vice-regent's on earth.

This notion of lordship or dominion, however, must be transformed according to the pattern of lordship displayed by Christ, who Christians believe reveals the true nature of God.

Accordingly, Andrew Linzey calls human beings the "servant" species:

The uniqueness of humanity consists in its ability to become the servant species. To exercise its full humanity as co-participants and co-workers with God in the redemption of the world. (Animal Theology, p. 57)

Just as God in Christ enters into the suffering of the world to redeem it, human beings are called to become priests, offering themselves in costly service to creation.

Human dominion over creation is a de facto reality whether or not we can identify some uniquely human characteristic, such as rationality, that isn't shared to some degree with non-human animals. We have it in our power to drastically alter the climate, to cause the extinction of millions of species, and to make the earth uninhabitable for life as we know it. (This is where Christians would depart from some "deep ecologists" who view human beings as simply one species among many.)

Lordship as servanthood, however, would involve human beings living generously toward each other and the rest of creation. And it would mirror the lordship of the Good Shepherd who gave himself for others.

Proverbs and English sayings about Duck

1. Roasted ducks don´t fly into your mouth.
2. Time enough lost the ducks.
3. He who gives a duck, expects a goose.
4. It’s as hard to see a woman crying as it is to see a barefooted duck.