Tag Archives: animals

Animal Instincts: Love at First Sight Does Exist

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved –for ourselves, or rather, in spite of ourselves. ~-Victor Hugo-~ Between Aimee’s article today and a story I was telling my mom about when Tabby came into our lives and how she instantly took a shine to Murph, I got to thinking about love at first site. How it really does exist. I’ve seen it happen! First Greeting: Tongue in the Mouth Aimee recalling the pals in her dogs’ lives that they’ve most loved brought to mind the first time Murph met Tucker, the dog destined to be … Continue reading →

Robotic Animals Decode Animal “Talk” and Behavior

One of the latest bits of information about technology and science concerns robotic animals that are being used to help decode animal “talk” and animal behavior. Scientists are building all sorts of robotic animals from squirrels to slugs and using them to interact with real animals in the hopes of gaining new information about animal behavior. Other robotic animals (and insects) currently being used include lizards, parrots and roaches. The robotic animals range from just hidden speakers that are controlled remotely by computers to full-on animated animals, complete with gestures and sounds. Scientists set these robotic animals up near real … Continue reading →

Animal Holidays and Observances There Should Be If There Aren’t Already

Last year I was pretty good about tracking the different animal/pet related holidays and observances with articles like Appreciating Elephants (in honor of Elephant Appreciation Day), Have You Hugged Your Sea-Monkeys Today?, Happy World Turtle Day!, and Hug Your Cat Day: Come Here, Tabby and Mr. Meow!. That’s just to name a few. There were more (see the list below for some others, including some Aimee wrote). The past few months I’ve been thinking about the number and variety of holidays and observances I found –and the ones I don’t think exist that have occurred to me since. I decided … Continue reading →

Religion and Animals

The other night on the news they ran a story about orangutans eating matzah crackers in observance of Passover at the Zoological Center of Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan in Israel. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, and while it was a cute story I couldn’t help but wonder: do you think those orangutans care if they’re kosher or not? I’m willing to believe they don’t, but because their handlers are Jewish and it’s their way of life so it becomes the orangs way too. Or does it? Maybe they don’t always follow a kosher diet. But if they did, what about … Continue reading →

What If Animals Hadn’t Been Okay?

Over in Marriage today I reflected on circumstances growing up that influenced my decision not to have children. Human ones at any rate. I’ve always had a pet or two, but I’ve treasured them as more than mere “pets.” Like many of you, my pets are my kin. Once they enter my house and heart, they become family. But why is that okay? If I’m going to cherish them as my children, why not have real ones? I think it’s because just as I was raised in an environment where kids were considered a burden, I was also raised in … Continue reading →

Flu Type A vs. Type B

Lately, I find the flu capturing my interest. For a long time, I thought the flu was just the flu. Just another virus going around. But it turns out that there’s more than one type of flu… WAY more than one. The influenza virus is divided into three types: Type A: the most common version of the flu. It is also the most serious — the one that caused flu epidemics throughout history. Influenza A can infect people, birds, pigs, horses, and other animals. Type B: a milder version of the flu. Also to blame for epidemics in the past, … Continue reading →

Updating the Flu Shot

The flu vaccine is new every year. The influenza virus evolves quickly, and the vaccine has to change every year to keep up. This year’s flu shot is getting some attention in the news lately. It seems like the flu shot did well protecting people for the first part of the flu season, but now cases of influenza are on the rise. Why? Because the strains that are very active this year aren’t strains that were covered in the 2008 flu shot. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control say that only about forty percent of the people who got vaccinated … Continue reading →

Horses, Dogs, and Cats: Why It’s No Mystery They Appear in Kathleen Delaney’s Books

I didn’t plan it this way, but this seems to be the week for interviews with authors who have both Italian Greyhounds and German Shepherds. (Yesterday I posted an interview with author Lauren Carr whose pet menagerie also includes these breeds.) As you can tell from the above picture, the author du jour, Ms. Kathleen Delaney, also has two such dogs. Besides accompanying her to book signings, how else do her pooches help with her writing process? And does she model any characters after them? My inquiring mind wanted to know that and more, and Ms. Delaney was kind enough … Continue reading →

Animals in Historical Mysteries: An Interview with Mary Reed (and Eric Mayer)

Another author who recently humored my request for an interview is Mary Reed, who co-authors the John the Eunuch series with Eric Mayer. And actually I got double my money this go around because this dynamic duo is also a married one as well. I’m going to keep my intro short because in reading their answers you’ll come to see how much they not only love animals (especially cats), but also use animals in their work and have a lot of fun with it. Courtney Mroch: What kind of things do you write about? Mary Reed/Eric Mayer: We write historical … Continue reading →

Books for Pet Lovers

With six shopping days left until Christmas, that doesn’t leave much time to get any last minute gifts you may need for the pet lovers on your list. It certainly eliminates ordering gifts online, but there’s always the bookstore. Here’s a list of books you can’t go wrong with: Fiction Earlier this month Aimee profiled some great, classic fiction featuring animals that would delight any age pet lover on your list: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Tailchaser’s Song Watership Down Others you might want to revisit include: Black Beauty National Velvet For mystery lovers, dog and cat characters … Continue reading →