Wildlife Watch

Summarized by M.R.G.

Thirteen years ago, Mary Grams of Alberta Canada lost a gold and diamond ring while working in her garden. For all those years she kept it a secret from everyone but her son.  This August, Mary’s daughter-in-law was picking carrots to make for supper and noticed that a carrot had grown through a ring! Mary’s son knew it had to be his mother’s that was lost over a decade before.

Amazingly, this isn’t the first time someone pulled up some karats along with their carrots.

Read the full story here. 

Researchers Provide New Insights into Lyme Disease Solutions

Summarized by M.R.G.

According to an article written by Joe Lipovich of the CT Patch, Tim R. Hofmeester, a graduate student at the Netherlands' Wageningen University, led a recently published study that exposes new insights into the spread of Lyme disease, in which the red fox plays a vital role. Ticks that carry Lyme disease live on prey animals such as mice. With a decrease in predators such as foxes, prey populations increase and the ticks with them. According to the study, an increase in predators doesn’t actually decrease the abundance of prey, but rather causes the prey to engage in more “refuging behavior”, thus staying out of the way of ticks. There is research that suggests further that human interactions are driving up tick populations. For instance, rising temperatures and premature springs caused by climate change allow ticks to be active much earlier in the season. Therefore, being more aware of how we as human impact the environment is important to controlling the spread of tick borne illnesses. Working together with the natural order is one solution ready for the taking.

To view the entire article, click here.

GOOD NEWS FOR ANIMALS:

Animal protectors in Vietnam, a center for bear bile farming, arranged for 1000 bears who were living in painful and squalid conditions to be relocated. Legislation was passed so that within ten years (a loooong time for the bears) bear bile farming will not be allowed at all.
However, enforcement is weak and places to care for the rescued bears need to be found or set up.
To learn more about this horrific business, see this article by Kyle Swenson in the Washington Post:

To become involved with an organization that is helping the bears, visit: www.animalsasia.org

Taffy Williams of NY4whales sent the following good news:

This summer, Mexico City voted to ban dolphin shows.

AND…France has banned the captive breeding of dolphins and orcas. Visit NY4whales.org

The New York Times wrote an obituary of Hope Ryden that can be seen at this website.

Many of our readers know that Hope wrote over 24 books about the wild animals she came to know by spending years in solitude in their environment. Her astute observations and brilliant writing gave readers a different view of wild animals they either reviled or hadn’t heard of. 

But I’d like to tell our readers something personal.  It’s about Hope’s love for her last dog, Jojo. When Pete Muller and I met Hope in her apartment in New York City, she and John, her husband, had just adopted a large and energetic dog they named Jojo. Jojo gave so much joy to Hope during the time that they were together.  Hope especially loved telling the story about how he discovered a jar of peanut butter on the kitchen counter, cleverly knocked it to the kitchen floor, more cleverly managed to remove the lid, and most cleverly got every bit of peanut butter into his mouth.  

When we learned that Hope was no longer living in her apartment due to ill health, we were also concerned about Jojo and needed to find out what happened to him. Jojo, we had heard was taken by a family member temporarily to another state.  After weeks of trying to get more information, I was able to reach John who was living at their house upstate NY.  It was good to hear John’s voice - could he tell me what happened to Jojo?  “Yes, he’s standing right here next to me!”  I burst out laughing from relief!   That led to a delightful visit where I took the photo. 

Jojo had some age on him from the lean, spunky guy I remembered who loved racing back and forth along the hallway of his NYC apartment building.  He loved jumping on everyone who was brave enough to walk toward him (or back away from him), almost knocking them over - all to Hope’s delight! Jojo was still excited to have company, but after the initial surprise wore off, and perhaps as he recalled our visit to the apartment in NYC, I could tell from his far-away look that Hope was still deep in his heart, and I know he is in hers.  When I last talked to Hope, she certainly remembered Jojo, and had fun recounting memories of his antics.

A couple of years before ill health struck, Hope told me she was writing a new book.  It was to be about her life as it intertwined with the various dogs who had been a part of her history from childhood to the present time.  Each chapter would be about a different dog and her life during the time they were together.  I’m sure many of us who’ve lived long enough to have had successive dogs in our lives can relate to that way of organizing who we were and when.

Losing Hope Ryden is calamitous for the wild animals she loved so deeply, and whose lives she so intimately understood from her years with them in the wild.  As a compassionate observer of their individuality, Hope was able to communicate their personhood even to people who didn’t agree that animals had any.  She was more than a writer and photographer, Hope was an activist who spoke out for wild animals who were hunted, trapped, and subjected to other types of cruelty. Her book, God’s Dog, a Celebration of the North American Coyote is a classic that rightfully transforms the demonized coyote (by game agencies, hunters, and Wildlife Services of the USDA) into God’s dog who has a purpose of his or her own, and, more importantly, a soul.

Hope will be greatly missed!

Nestled in at 35 West Market Street in Red Hook, NY is the cutest café you’ll ever find yourself in. Morgan’s Cat Café doubles as a vegan café, serving up delicious comfort food, and a shelter and adoption center for cats. As you walk in, a small and bright vestibule contains signs directing you as to how you can spend some quality time with the lounging cats in the free-roaming enclosure. The enclosure being mostly windowed, you can see all of the cats playing or relaxing as you walk from the vestibule into the café proper. Along with scrumptious food, there are a number of cute and quirky kitty treats and trinkets, literature, and adorable cat-themed cupcakes and cookies.

Executive Director Bobbi Jo has been rescuing animals for about 24 years. Her idea for the cat café started as a desire to open a vegan café and also as a legacy project for her daughter Morgan, who the café is named after, due to a serious medical issue that Bobbi Jo faced in 2015. Bobbi Jo wanted to provide people with a new and better way to interact with adoptable cats in a low  stress environment. Thus, Morgan’s Cat Café was started in July 2016 and has since rescued approximately 65 cats. The operation Bobbi Jo has is relatively small, but every cat counts. They focus heavily on the quality of care each individual cat receives and the smaller size allows for excellent monitoring of each cat that comes through their doors and out to their forever homes. The café is a non-profit organization and is run completely by volunteers. Morgan’s cat café is partnered with a number of rescue organizations, many of which are in New York City, and are where a number of their rescues come from.

Two rescues in particular had our attention that day: a pair of grey striped tabby kittens. These kittens were part of a litter of five that, just hours old, were left in a dumpster behind Taconic Farms Labs of Germantown NY. The kittens were placed inside of a bag with dead mice and rats, presumably, from the lab that breeds rodents for use in other laboratories. Bobbi Jo got a call from an employee of Taconic Farms telling her about the kittens in the dumpster and, with her help, all five were nursed back to health. Bobbi Jo and her daughter Morgan bottle fed the kittens but, eventually, another cat stepped up and became a foster mom. This cat even started producing milk for the kittens! The two kittens left at the café are the only two of the litter that have yet to be adopted, but hopefully that will soon change.

Bobbi Jo is doing a great job living off a wonderful motto she mentioned to me, which is her desire to “never profit from the slaughter of an animal”. Her next goal is to open a cat wine bar upstairs from Morgan’s Cat Café, and also try her hand at a vegan food truck. Keep an eye out for such business ventures of Bobbi Jo’s and, of course, try to head over to Morgan’s Cat Café in Red Hook, NY. Maybe you’ll even meet the newest member of your family.