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| Dodo (Getty Images) |
Let’s
hear it for The Dodo! No, not the dodo that went extinct centuries
ago, but the website named for
that unfortunate, flightless bird. Happily, www.thedodo.com
is all animals, all the time. It’s a great nightcap that sends me to
bed on an “animal high” – learning new things; seeing
animals rescued, not abused; laughing out loud or just “awww”-ing over images or videos.
remember when The Dodo began, but I signed
up as soon as I saw it. With four or five subjects
each day in story (with still images) or video (with subtitles) form, its
diverse subjects include the following:
rescues
(farmers uncouple two battling bucks whose antlers got tangled together;
firefighters save a dog stranded on an ice floe. . . )
https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/cat-sleeps-in-doll-bed?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=52617&utm_content=52617+CID_516c006bd682cf011e81ad9165fbf3df&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor
can this (animal of any kind) be saved – from being
covered in tar; from crippling abuse or birth deformities?
unlikely animal friendships — a chicken who stands on her barnyard friends; a cat and a horse; a rescued piglet who makes herself at home with
eight varied family and foster “siblings”
pit bulls – invariably shown as tender-hearted
love givers and seekers. (If this is a campaign to soften pits’ image, it
worked for me!)
LOLs –bounding baby goats, often wearing sweaters;
the husky who throws a tantrum when it’s
time to leave the playground; a baby elephant who wants to charge the
photographer but retreats to his nearby mom; the kitten popping bubble gum
bubbles; the pet rat who munches out on spaghetti
Occasional stories can seem staged or rehearsed – the elephant
who runs to his rescuer once he comes into view; the squirrel who taps on the
window for snacks; the mixed-species pets who cuddle together just too
beautifully to be spontaneous.
reader-involvement: the three amigos — two elderly dogs and a cat who finally
got attention and freedom from the squalor they lived in; the ramshackle animal
shelter made far riskier by catastrophic flooding and short staffing; a cat no
one would touch because of his severe mange and other unsightliness . . . until
someone did — and rescued him and now months later, he’s
healed and in foster care. It’s hard not
to donate and/or reach out to ask about progress.
Dodo (www.thedodo.com). It’s a tonic.
bad enough that New Jersey’s black bears are unfairly vilified and hunted. Now,
despite bear sightings in every county of the state, some police depts. – most,
I’d bet – still lack tranquilizer guns. Then when they kill a bear for seeming rush-to-judgment
reasons, they claim “but we don’t have tranquilizer guns!”
On Sunday, the Union Beach (Monmouth County) police
reported they had killed a large bear. As sketchily reported in Monday’s Times of Trenton, police said the bear
“had to be put down . . . to prevent an
even more grave situation [not specified]
from occurring.” The PD’s Facebook post
said, . . .”as we know – human life takes precedent [sic] over animal life.”
the group’s belief, then the animal can be killed with impunity (thereby
setting a precedent)? You have to wonder whether this PD has
training or policies for how to deal with bears and other wildlife.
in NJ: The state senate failed to override
Gov.
of the puppy mill sales bill (S3041), which would have benefited both pet-buyers
forced into “lives” of constant breeding. There’s talk of a second override
next month.