All the Creatures

In the bygone era of BI (AKA Before the Internet), most of our knowledge of nature and animals came from textbooks, TV and newspaper news, books written by specialists in their field and documentaries shown on TV or at the movies. If you went to your local library it would be a crap shoot if you got up to date information on the subject you were trying to research. At that time we were unaware of the information that was outdated.

Just a few months ago I wrote on this blog about how I had to do a research project on the ancient history of the horse and found out that the horse originated on the North American continent and not in Asia as was the old information that many people were taught. In fact prior to the 1970’s most horse books stated the erroneous fact of horses originally coming from Asia or the middle East. I have one of those books in my back room. In fact the discovery of the horse developing in North America was in the 1920’s and then further evidence was found in the 1950’s. Apparently that knowledge was not widely known, until the internet came along.

Instead of waiting until a book is published with new scientific evidence, the information is now released via the internet. The information is fast and detailed. Scientists now collaborate in real time over vast remote areas. Our understanding of nature and its history are now greatly improved.

All the Creatures

photo courtesy of Venetian Masks

Would it come as a surprise to you to learn that Mardi Gras is celebrated all over the world? It surprised me, as I thought it was strictly a new world event that was centered in New Orleans and south America. Mardi Gras is the period of celebration that leads up to Ash Wednesday, a Christian day that marks the beginning of Lent (the period where Christ went through 40 days of fasting). In the period of Mardi Gras varies from country to country and even here in the USA each city has a different number of days or weeks that parties, masked balls and celebrations take place.

Animals also have their part in the celebrations. They are not just symbolized in the Mardi Gras masks, also called Venetian Masks, as shown in the photo above. Animals are the benefactors of several parades in New Orleans, where money is collected and donated to local shelters. Dogs are commonly dressed up and accompany their owners in the parades. There is even a celebration of dead and lost pets.

So you see, Mardi Gras is not just for humans.

All the Creatures

With heat waves going on in full swing over the majority of the USA, here are some suggestions on how you can help your pets beat the heat:

Provide shade in an area that has breeze. Shade with stagnate air is almost as bad as not having any shade at all. Like in the photo above you can also provide a misting system for your pets. The misting systems also work well for livestock in barns as well as for dogs. Those of you that live in a high humidity area might want to just supply a breeze from fans, either overhead fans or free standing fans. Many local feed stores have huge free standing fans for sale for barns and other livestock areas. Here are what they look like:

Of course you want to make sure that all of your pets and livestock have plenty of water available. In fact I am now about to go outside and check all of the livestock tanks to make sure they are full.  At the same time I will check all of the animals to see if any of them are suffering from the heat.

For caged birds, you can make them comfortable by providing the occasional misting of water from a spray bottle.

All the Creatures