Pet Monologues

Animals
10,000 Birds

Authors/Writers
2 Write Hands

Travel
1clickpethotels.com

A few posts ago PM presented incredible polar bear photos. The images by themselves are remarkable. But the polar bear is more than the largest predator on this planet. They have become a global warming symbol. It’s an easy analogy. The bears live on ice. The ices is melting. Easy picture here. Here is another polar bear story, and another global warming hot-spot.

The bears may have more problems…

Today Salon.com. comes to the forefront highlighting yet another polar bear worry. Part of their story is in this post with a link to the full story…

If your idea of a good time is paying $25,000 to journey to the frozen north in Canada to shoot a polar bear—making you one of the more than 50 American “sportsmen” who do so every year—you’re not happy about the lawsuits and recriminations over whether the Bush administration should grant new protections to polar bears. After all, those darn regulations could interfere with your bringing home a furry white rug for your living room floor.

In the reams of press about the increasing deaths of polar bears, the role of trophy hunters and the Inuit who help them is often missing. In the Canadian territories where the polar bear lives, the government sets quotas for the number of bears that can be hunted each year. The Canadian Inuit, who are paid by hunters to help them stalk the bears, and American hunting associations have become vocal adversaries to environmentalists and Congress members who in recent months have battled the Department of Interior, with its Bush-Cheney oil connections, to safeguard the polar bear.

Today, there are between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears worldwide, according to the World Conservation Union Species Survival Commission’s Polar Bear Specialist Group, which lists the species as “vulnerable.” Between 700 and 900 polar bears are shot every year, the majority of those taken in Canada, according to Andrew Derocher, a biologist at the University of Alberta, who chairs the Polar Bear Specialist Group. Of the approximately 600 polar bears shot in Canada, about 15 percent of those are killed by sports hunters, many of them American, who pay between $20,000 to $35,000 for the chance to do so. Read the rest of this entry »

Dolphin appears to guide whales to sea

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)—Most days, Moko the bottlenosed dolphin swims playfully with humans at a New Zealand beach. But this week, it seems, Moko found his mojo. Witnesses described Wednesday how they saw the dolphin swim up to two stranded whales and guide them to safety. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiny Iowa town rescinds $5 cat bounty

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)—Cat haters, never mind: The tiny town of Randolph has rescinded a $5 bounty on feral feline.

Nucaraquan’s celebrate mass for dogs.

MASAYA, Nicaragua (Reuters)—Hundreds of dogs, many dressed as babies or clowns, were taken to celebrate mass in this Nicaraguan town on Sunday, an annual ritual where the owners pray for their pets to be cured or avoid falling ill. Read the rest of this entry »

PM is not exactly sure what is going on here. Here is a link to the photo which seems to be a temporary page for…The Cats’ House

Dogs are curious. They want to see!

Best Friends Care has the perfect solution to bored Rover’s lack of a backyard view. The PetPeekâ„¢ is a hard plastic dome that, with a little basic woodcraft, fits into a privacy fence and allows your mutt a safe, enclosed-bubble glimpse of the world beyond. This high quality pet window helps alleviate boredom while providing your furry friend some fun.

Westwords Best Canine Accessory 2007 Award
PET AGE Magazine & H.H.Backer Associates Inc. 40th Annual Pet Industry Christmas Trade Show Product Excellence 2006 Award via petpeek

Caw to art! is an effort to showcase pets and animals in an ARTFUL manner. A photograph, fine art, a scribble, sculpture. A poem, a monologue, a short story, motion.

Submissions: Beginning Wednesday 3/12/08 thru Friday—and maybe
a bit longer…

Helen Read submits night prowler
Diane Clancy submits stella in butterflies
Pet Monologues submits Richard du Toit’s zebra
Paintalicious submits madre
Pet Monologues submits nick brandt

night prowler

stella in butterflies

zebra

spider

brandt

Still steeping…

…in the meantime. Questions? Comments? Editor’s note: please look at Comment 1 below for more C2a! details as well as look at the previous editions of Caw to art!…

and while you are curating your submissions don’t forget Friday Ark roster for this weekend. And Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday.

This is #2 in a series of nature photography. The images are winners in the prestigious 2007 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards.

The competition includes the Grand Prize and winners in 15 categories. More than 17,000 entries were submitted from photographers from 26 countries around the world to document the beauty, variety, and importance of Earth’s wildlife and wild places.

Polar bear photos taken by 2007 Conservation Photographer of the Year 2007, Howard Ruby.

“Even thought this mother appears to be resting, she is very attentive and highly protective of her cub. Mothers nurse their young until they are almost three years of age and her milk is among the richest of any animal in the world with 30 to 40% fat content. This enables her young to quickly add a layer of protective fat that will help them survive in the Arctic environment.” Read the rest of this entry »

This is #1 in a series of nature photography. The images are winners in the prestigious 2007 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards.

The competition includes the Grand Prize and winners in 15 categories. More than 17,000 entries were submitted from photographers from 26 countries around the world to document the beauty, variety, and importance of Earth’s wildlife and wild places.

About Windland Smith Rice

This exhibition has been named in memory of Windland Smith Rice for her unyielding support of emerging photographers worldwide. Windland’s love for nature and photography was second only to her love for people and her legacy will fuel the passion of these artists for generations to come.

2008
The categories for the 2008 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards: Read the rest of this entry »