Invitation to "Tell us a story"

Do you like to tell stories?
Did you ever sit around a campfire listening to stories?
Bonnie (my writing partner) has started a new blog, one where folks will share stories.
Check it out:
Tell us a story.



I may have a go at it myself. I could share a ROAR or two.

Let's pause for a moment of silence, please

If I knew how to drape my blog in black, that's what I would do today. I've just read that the Caribbean monk seal has become extinct. What that really means, of course, is that "people" have just today confirmed that it's true. Do you want to know the really bad part? The AP article says, "Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable." Extinction is forever, people! We aren't talking about the death of a single seal, but the death of a whole KIND of seal. The article goes on to say, "The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula." And "the species is the only seal to become extinct from human causes." YOU did it, you people did it. I'm especially bothered by the list of reasons: "research, food, and blubber."

Oh, did I hear someone ask where I got this photo? It's an Hawaiian monk seal in this stock photo taken a decade ago, and there are only about 1,200 of them left. This species is declining at the rate of about 4% a year, according to NOAA, which protects them. When their numbers get below 1,000 in the next three or four years, they too will be among the most endangered marine species in the world. You researched them to death! I am so totally depressed that I can't talk to you anymore right now. I'm in mourning.

Didja hear about that parrot?

I know, I know, I've been away far too long. But nobody told me how much fun it would be to have cubs around the house, and I've been having fun with them. It took a parrot to bring me back to my blog. It was this parrot, whose name is Yosuke, now back home in his cage:

Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address

When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help. Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said. He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said. The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years. But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials. "I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

ROAR #3 ~ environmental damage

Today, October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to focus attention on one single issue: our damaged environment. Bloggers everywhere will post about the environment in their own way and, for me, that means another ROAR. The idea is to get all of us talking about a better future. If you want to know more about what others are doing, click on THIS LINK.

Let me share a couple of quotes from Daniel Quinn's book The Tales of Adam:

(1)
When the gods set out to make the universe, they said to themselves, "Let us make of it a manifestation of our unending abundance and a sign to be read by those who shall have eyes to read. Let us lavish care without stint on every thing: no less upon the most fragile blade of grass than upon the mightiest of stars, no less upon the gnat that sings for an hour than upon the mountain that stands for a millennium, no less upon a flake of mica than upon a river of gold. Let us make no two leaves the same from one branch to the next, no two branches the same from one tree to the next, no two trees the same from one land to the next, no two lands the same from one world to the next, no two worlds the same from one star to the next. In this way, the Law of Life will be plain to all who shall have eyes to read: the rabbit that creeps out to feed, the fox that lies in wait, the eagle that circles above, and the man who bends his bow to the sky."
And this was how it was done from first to last, no two things alike in all the mighty universe, no single thing made with less care than any other thing throughout generations of species more numerous than the stars. And those who had eyes to see read the sign and followed the Law of Life.

(2)
God is life in abundance wherever life is found, but not for all in every season. When the locusts thrive, the birds feast and the bison and the deer go hungry; still that place is as full of life as it was before and as full of life as it can be. No place where there is life is a desert, except to man.

I hope you humans wake up soon because you are ruining everything for us animals as well as yourselves. (I hope, I really hope, I'm not just roaring to myself here.)

ROAR #2 ~ torture

TORTURING ANY LIVING THING IS WRONG !!! It's WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong-headed!!! ROARRRRRrrrrrrrrRRRRRRR!!

I don't know why it's so hard for humans to understand that torture is just plain WRONG. You torture animals, you torture other humans ... what is wrong with you that you would do such a thing?

Although I have been in the United States only a few months, I have been an informed citizen of the world for a very long time. I am distressed about the way humans treat each other. Oh, I know what you're thinking, that lions kill all the time. It's true that we kill to eat, but we don't torture each other. Okay, you over there, I heard you whisper something about cats toying with small animals they catch. Don't try to change the subject! ROAR-R-R-R-R-R-R-RRrrrrrrRRRRRR !!!!!

And Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States, says the U.S. tortures prisoners. That's according to the Associated Press on Wednesday evening. Here's the article I read:

WASHINGTON - The U.S. tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday, adding that President Bush makes up his own definition of torture.

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said on CNN. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime."

Bush, responding to an Oct. 4 report by The New York Times on secret Justice Department memorandums supporting the use of "harsh interrogation techniques," defended the techniques Friday by proclaiming: "This government does not torture people."

Carter said the interrogation methods cited by the Times, including "head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures," constitute torture "if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored -- certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.

"But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don't violate them," Carter said.

In an interview that aired Wednesday on BBC, Carter ripped Vice President Dick Cheney as "a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military."

Carter went on to say Cheney has been "a disaster for our country. I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush."

Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell declined to speak to Carter's allegations.

"We're not going to engage in this kind of rhetoric," she said.

In the CNN interview, the Democratic former president disparaged the field of Republican presidential candidates.

"They all seem to be outdoing each other in who wants to go to war first with Iran, who wants to keep Guantanamo open longer and expand its capacity -- things of that kind," Carter said.

He said he also disagreed with positions taken by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have declined to promise to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq over the following four years if elected president next year.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

If only some of you humans would get as enraged as I am about this issue, maybe you could stop some of the torture. Do you know about the pain an animal goes through testing whether a cosmetic will be painful to you? Probably not, but we feel pain too, you know. Why do you wear that stuff anyway? We lions, we ANIMALS, think we look just fine as we are. So why do you think you aren't good enough the way you are? Is it because you lost all your fur? You DO look a little naked when you aren't wearing pieces of cloth to cover yourselves, but I don't understand why you paint and cover the little bits of yourself that show, like your faces. Oh, well, that's not my point. If you MUST wear cosmetics, try the stuff out on yourselves and leave the rabbits alone! Quit torturing them!

And quit torturing each other. If you don't understand what torture is, let me put it in simple words: QUIT HURTING EACH OTHER. It's that simple. It's what you teach your children, but you don't listen to yourself. Don't hurt anyone. Don't hurt any living thing. ROARRRrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRR!!

Wiener Dawg Race

A three-legged dachshund named Longfellow runs to the finish line to win a race at the Annual Savannah Wiener Dawg Races Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007, in Savannah, GA. Longfellow missed last year's races after being hit by a car and losing one of his hind legs. After recovering for the year, Longfellow joined more than 175 dachshunds from around the South to compete for prizes during races at the Oktoberfest Festival on the Historic River Street Waterfront. (AP Photo/Photo Stephen Morton)

Bonobo baby

In this photo released by the Zoological Society of San Diego, a 1-month old, endangered bonobo is fed by her caretakers at the San Diego Zoo, Oct. 9, 2007. Mali, which translates to 'something valuable' in Swahili, was born on Sept. 4. Her mother experienced a very difficult birth and Zoo veterinarians and keepers had to quickly intervene to ensure the baby's survival. Although she was in critical condition the first couple weeks, keepers report she is progressing nicely. (AP Photo/Zoological Society of San Diego, Ken Bohn)