Felidae canned is no longer in stock so I asked Julia (our pet food supplier) to recommend some new canned food brands. I'm still antsy about garlic in canned foods so I went with Merrick's canned food.

Although it is small and costs a lot more than Felidae, I found it easier to feed finicky Boy and cohort with a mix of the canned and dry (Royal Canin right now) at the same time for a single meal.

I think this feeding arrangement is a lot healthier than the 2-3x a week canned food and the remaining dry. Merrick's got 4 healthy flavours so I think the kids, especially the younger ones, love the variety.

Delightfully, Kaku has been joining the other 4 in the living room more often these days.

Last night while getting a drink in between our movie, I saw Kaku in the bedroom and petted her some. She meowed a little and I told her, everyone's in the living room, come join us. When the movie ended, I was happy to see her appearing from behind the couch. She was with us all along. :D

Last night, we noticed that that Mu Child (as what we call Sam these days - Sam -> Samy -> Samu -> Mu Mu -> Mu Child) had poo on the top part of his foot when he jumped up on the bed.

Swiftly, we grabbed and bathed him.

There was no stopping us after that.

Buffy was caught serenely lying on the ledge.

Boy was caught while lying next to my computer chair.

Kaku was caught after luring her out with food. She looked so betrayed that I felt so bad. She stood, paws on the door all the while when I was bathing her and only meowed right at the end, a sad "why-must-you-wet-me" meow. Finally, her Dad brought the towel out and I wrapped her in it and carried her.

She looked rather subdued and let me carry her for a long time, even touching noses with me! :D It felt like I was carrying my own newborn. :D She was so small and wet. I held her very close to me to warm her up and stroked her forehead a bit.

Finally she struggled a little and I let her go down and join the rest.

All the while, Tuxie, who had been bathed the day before for peeing in the empty poo pan while his Dad was changing it, kept running from us, as if we'd bathe him again. :D

I fed them all although Kaku ran under the dining table. I brought a bowl to her but Tux and Mu crowded round to try steal her food. Although I chased them off, she looked scared of me. :( I left so that she'd hopefully eat some.

Bedtime saw Boy lying (almost dried) on his Dad's blanket. :D Tux in the corner. Kaku and Mu earlier on the fridge but Kaku later came by to lie down on the rug beside me. :D Buffy and Mu wandering the room. :D

I slept like a baby.

Reflections on Being Human by Captain Paul Watson

I would like to offer my apologies to my fellow Canadians for making anti-Canadian remarks over the last week. I was actually quite encouraged today to see a Vancouver Province poll that indicated that 74% of the readers were against the seal hunt. Over the years, many polls have reflected this but the government of Canada simply ignores this dissent and continues to allow the annual orgy of perverse carnage to take place every year.

I do admit that after forty years of exposure to the slaughter of seals, that my heart has been sickened by the violence and slaughter that I have witnessed.

And over the years, I have seen this horror repeated over and over again. I have witnessed the mass slaughter of pilot whales in the Faeroe Islands, the massacre of the dolphins in Japan, the finning and torture of hundreds of sharks, the struggles of sea-turtles dying on longlines, the screams of disemboweled elephants in East Africa – a litany of horror stories and so much blood and suffering.

I admit it does something to a person. It erodes innocence and darkens the heart, and it arouses a deep and dangerous anger that I confess is difficult to keep on a leash.

But I have controlled my demons well, I think. I have never inflicted an injury to another human being and although I lash out at humanity with sharp words, I am only revealing a deep desire to restore some ecological and compassionate sanity to this tortured world.

So many are so busy being entertained that they cannot see the world being destroyed before their very eyes.

It is my compassion for life and my passion for this planet that keeps me in this struggle and keeps me on the front lines where I must confront the killers face to face, where I hear their taunts, sometimes feel their fists or weapons and must always weather their threats and their hate.

It is true that as a Canadian I am no fan of Canada and as a human being I am no great fan of humanity. But as an Earthling, I am someone who deeply and most affectionately loves life on this Earth and especially in her oceans.

I regret that this love sometimes gives birth to a deep skeptical pessimism about my fellow man and woman, but I know where it originates from and I would like to share it as a way of explaining why I do what I do and why I am who I am.

It goes back to June of 1975 just moments after failing to block a Russian harpoon that had mortally wounded a great sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean.

I watched this magnificent giant struggle on the surface of the ocean with a gaping wound in his head from an exploded Soviet harpoon. I saw his blood flow into the sea and I heard his scream of agony and then I saw one of his eyes make contact with mine.

The next moment he dove and disappeared beneath the surface but a trail of blood and bubbles moving rapidly towards me betrayed his intentions and his huge head burst through from the deep and his body rose high and at an angle above where I sat in a small inflatable boat. Within moments this great beast would fall forward and crush me but he stopped his ascent and I found myself looking into an eye the size of my fist and what I saw in that eye changed my life forever.

Because I saw and I felt understanding. That whale knew that I had attempted to protect it and with a great effort he fell back and I saw his long body slide beneath the waves and his eye disappear beneath the black surface of the sea.

And then I was alone.

And I found myself asking why? Why were the Russians killing these whales? I knew the practical answer. They were being killed for the high quality, high heat-resistant Spermaceti oil to be used in machinery. And one piece of machinery that this oil was used in was in the workings of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and the realization came to me that we were destroying these beautiful and intelligent sentient creatures for the purpose of manufacturing a weapon designed for the mass extermination of humanity.

And that was when I became enlightened to the simple truth that humanity was insane. I scoured the history books for evidence to the contrary but all that I could find was a record of war, deceit, selfishness, and wholesale destruction upon nature and upon each other.

But in my heart there is still a spark of hope for our salvation but I see this salvation only in our willful renunciation of the terrible violence we inflict upon other species and ourselves.

And that is why I fight to end these horrors like the seal hunt, whaling, aerial wolf killings, the clear-cutting of forests, and the mass extermination of the fishes. I do so to cleanse myself of my anger at humanity and thus myself.

So I do apologize for any offense I may cause. I often offend myself for I am in my very own eyes – the enemy.

For many years ago out on that blood-stained ocean, I met the dark side of man. I also looked into the eye of another species and saw both mercy and courage.

As a result, I today serve the whales, the dolphins, the seals, the turtles, the sea-birds, and the fishes, and I do it with incredible restrain and a commitment to non-violence.

But I confess to sometime unleashing my anger in words and by the means of confrontation, intervention, and obstruction.

So please forgive me both friends and supporters if I am not always gentle and meek in my regard for the butchers.

I am, after all – only human.

(Source: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Moblog)

The people and animals stricken by Hurricane Katrina will need many kinds of help over the coming days and weeks.

Those who know me, know me as the world's biggest skeptic, but I do believe I should help when it is needed.

There have been appeals for help from various organisations but I reckon this one, Best Friends Animal Society is the most legit. They send 100% of the donations to the relief and they have their financial statements online.

Please consider giving a bit to help the animals stricken by the hurricane. $10, $20, $50 or more. It all adds up. Click the button on the site that looks like the one below.

Hurricane Katrina Report
Donate to the Best Friends Hurricane Relief Fund
2004 Annual Report

It was lovely waking up feeling Boy at my feet. As if sensing I was awake or really, feeling my foot move, he walked over to my face and let me hug and pet him for the longest time. :) That is bliss.

Just after breakfast, Boy threw up his whole meal. Brown and clear biscuits. Poor child. He was eating them back when I ran out to check after hearing someone throw up. I dabbed it up and petted him before rushing off for work.

His Dad said he'd thrown up before, especially after eating our plants, my fern, particularly. I had checked and the fern is safe. He's happily napping beside me on his couch now. :D

A fairly restful weekend.

I have no recollection of what happened on Saturday but on Sunday, I received an acceptance email from John Klima, editor of Electric Velocipede for 2 poems: Miss Cossie's Pies and The World's Edge. That inspired me to clean up the extra 7 poems and send another 2 batches out. :)

Meanwhile, finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Spoiler alert!

Engaging as always, but the flashbacks to Riddle's life was disconcerting and seemingly a little unnecessary. Those who feel traumatised about Dumbledore's alleged demise can seek therapy here. The romances seemed very clumsy, save for the amusing tension between Hermione and Ron. Harry falling for Ginny seemed a bit abrupt, like a quick add-in after writing off Cho.

Just as well I guess, the girl they chose to play her in the next movie was not quite what I imagined Cho to be. I guess it is a different perception of what an Asian beauty ought to be. The actors playing Fleur, Cedric, and Krum didn't match or even come close to the ones I imagined.

After the brilliant and perfect casting of the first 3 movies, I was rather disappointed with the new supporting cast. I doubt I'll watch the movie till I finish reading Book 7. I'd rather preserve my original visuals of the story.

I finally started on Queen of the Damned. Oh, it is a draggy one. I fell asleep twice reading it over the weekend, and last week it never failed to put me to sleep. While the language is lyrical and very emotive, the story never quite seems to arrive at the crux of the damned story, which is about Akasha taking over the world. Halfway through now...

I've also begun watching Buffy Season 7. It's a dark one. Nice.

Do Animals Have Feelings?

Susan Rubinowitz and Dr. Nicholas Dodman build a pretty good case.

Animals may share some of the same feelings as man and may actually experience pain, grief and joy.

In 350 B.C., Aristotle found evidence of emotion in animals. "Some are good-tempered, sluggish, and little prone to ferocity, as the ox; others are quick-tempered, ferocious, and unteachable, as the wild boar," he wrote in The History of Animals.

Today, the proposition that animals share some of the same feelings as man – actually experiencing pain, grief, and joy – is winning more advocates. And animal rights activists point to that concept as a concrete reason to end man’s exploitation of animals. The reformers are getting help from biologist Marc Bekoff, of the University of Colorado, who has compiled a new book, The Smile of the Dolphin, (Discovery Books/Random House, $35) in which dozens of animal researchers explain why they believe animals have emotions.

The Grieving Chimp

In one chapter, primate expert Jane Goodall recounts the grief experienced by a chimpanzee child named Flint after his mother, Flo, died in Africa’s Gombe National Park. "Over the next three weeks, Flint became increasingly lethargic. He stopped eating, and he avoided other chimps, huddling in the vegetation close to where he’d last seen Flo," she writes.

The sad-eyed mourner made his way to the spot where his mother had lain, next to a stream, staring into the water until he died.

"Chimpanzees, differing from us genetically by only just over one percent, can’t be said to weep, for they don’t shed tears. Yet…they show behavior that’s associated with sadness, depression, and grief in humans: soft whimpering, crying sounds, listlessness, lack of appetite, avoidance of others," Goodall writes.

But are such animals truly "sad," in the sense that they realize something is lost that will never be regained? How can they be said to be happy, sad, or angry if they don’t perceive themselves as a separate being?, the skeptics ask. Others say it’s credible to count apes as capable of feeling, but a broad stretch to attribute emotions to lions or sheep.

"Does Flint reflect and say, 'I’m sad'? I don’t know if he does, but he’s behaving as if he’s sad, and there’s no reason to believe that he’s not sad," Bekoff says, adding that anyone who lives with a dog knows when she’s happy, sad, or fearful.

Human-Animal Bond

Clinton Sanders, a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, writes that he studied a guide-dog training program to find out more about the social bond between dogs and people.

"For people who depend on dogs for special assistance, knowing their animal companions’ thought processes and feelings is central to building an effective alliance," Sanders says. "The visually-impaired people with whom I talked often spoke of the special pleasure their dogs derived from doing the work they were trained for – and, in contrast, the embarrassment they obviously felt when they made mistakes."

Mother-Infant Bond

Jaak Panksepp, an expert in neuroscience at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, says he witnessed the power of the mother-infant bond when his two female cats, a mother and her daughter, each gave birth after building nests in closets on opposite ends of his long, ranch-style home.

The mother cat gave birth first, and the daughter, while awaiting her babies’ arrival, took charge of the mother’s brood, carrying them to her nest. "Then we had a few days of chaos, as mother and daughter repeatedly ferried the kittens between their domains," Panksepp recounts. "We know many of the neurochemistries that activate these strong (maternal) feelings. At the basic emotional level, all mammals are remarkably similar."

So, what does it mean to believe that animals have feelings? "It means they are not just objects with which we can do what we please," Bekoff says. But the broader implications of viewing animals with more sensitivity could mean dramatic societal changes, like stopping the factory production of meat for humans, or granting animals more rights.

"I think it will have a subtle, slow impact," says Bekoff, who’s a vegetarian. "I think the world is going to be different."

GeneSat-1: Small Satellite Tackles Big Biology Questions

As a potential forerunner to follow-on technology modules, GeneSat-1’s goal is to help devise protocols for the study of genetic changes arising from the unique space environment. Back here on Earth, advances in therapeutics have come from delving into biological mechanisms and pathways at the molecular level.

Similarly, skill in thwarting bone density loss, muscle atrophy, and a stressed immune system—debilitating effects observed on long-duration space missions—could benefit from GeneSat-1 and future gene/protein array analyzers flown in space.

Validating the GeneSat-1 in Earth orbit could foster its use to study biological changes in microorganisms and other specimens on the Moon and elsewhere in deep space. Data results are transmitted to Earth, requiring no specimen return.

Just as there have been advancements in small satellite technology, a revolution in the biological and medical sciences has been underway over the past 15-20 years, Bruce Yost, deputy project manager of the GeneSat-1 work for Defouw Engineering at NASA Ames, said. "You don’t need large amounts of tissue or samples to probe and understand what it is you are trying to determine," he told the small satellite meeting here.

These two developments – small satellites and biological research—have "intersected quite nicely," Yost said.

Russian Clipper Ship Draws European Interest

Europe is eying Russia’s proposed crew-carrying Clipper spaceship, not only for use in International Space Station operations, but also to carve out their role in future Moon, Mars and beyond exploration.

The Russian Clipper would be a sporty replacement for the venerable Soyuz spacecraft and would feature abilities like those touted for NASA’s drawing board vision of a Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV.

It is expected that a decision on Europe’s future involvement in the Russian Clipper concept will be made this December at a European Space Agency (ESA) Ministerial Council meeting.

Clippership stats

Russian space officials have explained that the still-to-be-built Clipper can carry six people: two pilots with the other four seats for astronauts or space tourists. The craft would be capable of hauling some 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of cargo.

In early statements, Russian space authorities have indicated that the Clipper could be in service in the 2010-2011 timeframe.

Clipper’s launch vehicle would be a Russian Onega rocket - a modified version of the Soyuz carrier rocket and could head spaceward from European as well as Russian spaceports.

ESA Looks East for Future Cooperation

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped into a full-scale mockup of the Clipper spaceship at MAKS 2005, a Russian International Aviation and Space Salon, held August 16-21 in Zhukovsky, close to Moscow.

Putin was joined by the head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov and the Director of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Launchers Program, Antonio Fabrizi. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov also participated.

ESA’s Fabrizi discussed with Putin future collaboration on projects such as Clipper, in which a number of ESA Member States, including Italy, France, Germany, Belgium and Spain have expressed interest.

The mockup of Russia’s Clipper design has been making the rounds of late. It was showcased in June at the Paris Air Show.

The multi-use vehicle was part of Russia’s Rosaviakosmos display at the Pairs Air Show. Rosaviakosmos is Russia’s Federal Space Agency, with the Clipper design a product of that country’s Energia Rocket and Space Corporation.

Starting point studies

In July, Space News reporter, Peter de Selding, noted that the proposed Clipper vehicle could be the basis of a future crew-carrying vehicle that would provide an alternative to the U.S. Crew Exploration Vehicle, based on remarks from Daniel Sacotte, head of ESA’s Human Spaceflight program.

Sacotte said that ESA will propose to its governments in December that they fund a series of design studies, in cooperation with Russia, using Clipper as a starting point.

“We are discussing this with Japan as well,” Sacotte said. “What we want to do is to be in a position around 2007 or 2008 to ask our governments to fund a development program. If Clipper turns out to be credible, it could be based on that. Our starting point is that for an international space exploration program to depend on one craft is too risky.”

[Source: Space.com]

I am ecstatic to announce that Dark Dreams, my third and arguably darkest collection to date, will be joining Naked Snake Press's übercool chapbook series. :D I just received the news from Donna today and am still bouncing off the walls. XD