Thanksgiving: still alive, still grateful

                                                                                           HSI pic

It’s nearly Thanksgiving – a blessedly non-sectarian holiday-invitation to think about all we’re grateful for.  This year, it could be very simple: we’re still alive!   

An added benefit is looking at ourselves and others with heightened appreciation.  What were annoyances before (say, dentist appointments) suddenly become welcome distractions from precautions and worry.  Other living creatures are even more cherished because we’re here to cherish them.  Life goes on. 

And may it long continue, so we may continue to be thrilled by the kinds of animal-world marvels described here. 

                                                                         NYT pic

Humans recently discovered another proof that ancient people were as much into cats as we are.  A huge feline figure about 40 yards long and thought to date back to 200 BC-100 BC was found on a hillside in Peru.  

It joins numerous other larger-than-life geoglyphs portraying myriad animals, spiders to alpacas to fish. Together, they comprise what are known as the “Nazca lines,” first discovered in 1927.
 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/world/americas/peru-cat-nazca-lines-nasca.html?               campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20201020&instance_id=23299&nl=the- morning&regi_id=20760274&section_index=2&section_name=the_latest_news&segment_id=41591&te=1&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd

Bring on Thanksgiving, so needed this year.  Much as the CDC urges people not to gather in groups for their health’s sake, the ASPCA warns against four harmful foods for pets this holiday season: (1) onions and garlic, (2) animal bones, (3) bouillon and (4) baked goods.  Worst case, an animal poison control center number is included.  

 https://www.aspcapro.org/resource/4-harmful-thanksgiving-foods-pets?utm_campaign=Tox%20Insider&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99627958&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8_W5dMGX2otP-nJw6rexte3J24i01irvTLrQa1qYVkQvnkWj0QFOGPZCNpchFuf2gkV2nU19dg9HVNx-2cAZkc_33rEg&utm_content=99627640&utm_source=hs_email

“Freeing turkeys” (or “pardoning” them – ha! when it’s people who need pardoning for raising them to be eaten, and then doing so) is a nice-enough but minimal good deed.  Here’s another approach to freeing these sentient beings from the holiday feast:  https://dawnwatch.com/turkey-rescue/

That link leads to “DawnWatch Turkey Rescue,” where you need only to click on the video at the top: “DawnWatch Guide to Holiday Turkey Preparation.”  Prepare to be amazed.

Major Biden

Dogs & cats

My last post featured Champ Biden, one of the two family German shepherds the Bidens will bring with them to the White House.  I’ve since found a good image of Major, the younger dog, who will be the first shelter dog ever to live in the president’s mansion.  (canine poetic justice!) 

Please remember that November is “adopt an older cat month.”  It’s a great time to bring a homeless cat home for the holidays – and beyond!

Hippos au naturel

“The hippo has long been an enigma: an aquatic mammal that cannot swim, a vegetarian that is also the most dangerous animal in Africa.”  That sentence alone was enough to get my attention and prompt me to watch Hippos: Africa’s River Giants (PBS, Nature), a 55-minute documentary narrated by David Attenborough.

Hippos

Although hippos are “utterly dependent on water,” they must somehow survive when the deep floodwaters they move through gradually dry up.  The film features aerial tracking of hippos in Botswana, moving along watery channels they create by traveling through grasses around the nearby river.

No, they don’t swim through those channels – they walk or run underwater along the paths, and from above resemble swift dark torpedoes.

William

Hippos includes how they protect their families and fight their enemies.  It also shows that these animals are not lovely in any traditional way!  Any resemblance between them and “William,” the blue faience hippo who’s the unofficial mascot of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is purely coincidental.

Animal sightings

Recently spotted: two creatures I’ve rarely seen.  First, early one morning, a hawk sat on our backyard fence, looking straight ahead– very much in charge, very understandably frightening to smaller birds and creatures.  S/he quickly flew off, maybe seeing my movement at the window.

Next was a pheasant – not seen in years -- on a school’s wooded property.  Fewer kids around may mean more pheasants. 

Albino squirrel

Finally, a second-hand sighting reported by a friend who sent a photo: an albino squirrel who lives in Burlington County, NJ.  (Wonder whether s/he likes peanuts too.)

 

 

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