Tag Archives: buffalo

Picture of the Moment—Zoey the Cool Cat talks….

I left at 4:18 on the morning on Wednesday, May 8, to go to northern Utah for the sesquicentennial celebration of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.

I lived in northern Utah—Hyrum, Wellsville, Logan, and Brigham City—from mid-1961 (unsure of the actual date) to December 18, 1965.

Union Pacific #844 and #4014 meet in Ogden, Utah I visited the historic railroad depot in downtown Ogden, Utah, to see two historic steam locomotives re-enact the meeting 150 years ago at….

Promontory Summit, Utah, the place where the eastern railroad, Union Pacific, met with the western railroad, Central Pacific;

Buffalo on Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake Antelope Island, a huge island in the Great Salt Lake, where there is a very large herd of buffalo;

Red Butte Gardens on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City;

Lagoon Amusement Park, one of the few places that I have positive memories of my years ages 6-10 in northern Utah;

visited my oldest aunt and uncle in Provo, Utah. Mom was the oldest child, and this uncle was the second oldest. Aunt & uncle were the two who drove me from Brigham City, Utah, to Kingsville, Texas, in December 1965 when I was to be adopted by my wise old (paternal) grandmother.

and I chased the two steam locomotives from Ogden to Morgan to Echo to Evanston, Wyoming, on May 12.

I will have lots of pictures and videos to share in the coming days, weeks, and months.

I got home at 7:50 on the morning of Monday, May 13.

I’m not sure whether I got a “Welcome home!” or a different message from the little queen, Zoey the Cool Cat.

What do y’all think?

Should we not release our dogs and cats back into the wild?

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I freely admit that I support zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, and even SeaWorld to the max, 100%.

I even support circuses when it is done right, and I’ll define “done right” as using positive reinforcement rather than negative reinforcement.

To me, it’s pretty obvious when animals in our care have been trained with positive reinforcement.

It’s no different from you teaching a dog to roll over, sit, play dead, shake.

It’s done with treats, not whippings.

Perhaps that’s why I don’t like horse racing. I have been to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Races twice with a Photographer All Access pass. A total of twenty hours on two different occasions two years apart. I have yet to see anyone give a horse a treat. Rather, they prod them, poke them, whip them…….. Why are people not protesting that instead of SeaWorld? I don’t understand.

Do animals in our loving care remember those who care for them? I submit that they do:

Here’s another one:

Did zoos, aquariums, SeaWorld, and circuses abuse animals in the past? I believe they did. I believe taking animals out of the wild can, in many circumstances, be considered abuse.

However, I would rather have some of these animals in Zoos to save them than in the wild where they get slaughtered by poachers:

100,000 elephants killed by poachers in 3 years

I would also submit that in today’s world, if you were able to ask these animals if they would prefer to be in the wild struggling to find food each day, fighting for their lives each day…. or in a zoo or aquarium where they get love, attention, food, and medical care…. I believe I know the answer.

Without the leadership of the San Diego Zoo in getting other zoos and sanctuaries to sign on to its California Condor Conservation program, the California Condor would now be extinct. It actually was extinct in the wild as recently as 1987. Through the successful breeding programs of the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos, the California Condor was re-introduced to the wild beginning in 1991 in southern Utah, northern Arizona, central and southern California, and northern Baja California, Mexico. Here are a few of the California Condors at the San Diego Zoo:

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has a northern white rhino as a resident. Northern white rhinos are functionally extinct, which means that the seven rhinos that exist in zoos throughout the world are beyond breeding age and that none exist in the wild. When these seven remaining rhinos die, there will be no more unless we can figure out cloning.

Many times each year the Zoo and Safari Park announce the arrival of big babies: orangutans, elephants, giraffes, gazelles, monkeys, and gorillas. If not for the Zoo, I would never have had the opportunity to see orangutans, elephants, giraffes, gazelles, monkeys, and gorillas. And my annual membership supports the Zoo’s conservation and breeding programs, to ensure that the California Condor continues to exist in the wild.

The Zoo also re-introduces wildlife to other parts of the world when possible. Unfortunately, people in other countries don’t have the economy that we have in the United States, so they don’t mind slaughtering animals for food and other products.

I try to go once a week to SeaWorld, the Zoo, and Safari Park because one never knows what’s going on each week and which animals will be photogenic for me.

Without Zoos, many millions of people, including me, would never have had the opportunity to see these beautiful creatures:

(Got the kangaroo in there for you, Laurie!)

Although I can cite no research to support me, I firmly believe that people who have visited a zoo, sanctuary, or aquarium are more likely to contribute to conservation efforts to save these beautiful creatures from extinction in the wild.

For those who want to release all of these creatures back into the wild, that cannot be done with many of them because they are injured and would not be able to survive. The two bald eagles at Safari Park come to mind, both injured in the wild and rescued, and both unable to fly.

If we take this to its logical conclusion, then all dogs and cats should be released back into the wild. After all, both species adapt quite quickly to life in the wild, so why are we keeping them penned up in our homes and teaching them tricks? For our entertainment, pleasure, and companionship….

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Santa Catalina Island — The land of tiles

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This post is dedicated to Michelle Molinari, an award-winning Certified Property Consultant and Founder/Lead Virtual Designer for “Feature This…”a real estate staging and curb appeal consulting company in Abbeville, Louisiana. I have known Michelle for several years through a real estate professional networking site and highly recommend her and her team for anyone needing real estate staging, curb appeal consulting, or interior decor services in the New Orleans area. Make your home look its best!

Dedications are my way of trying to provide a little extra Google juice for people I have come to know and respect over the years.

My recent trip to Santa Catalina Island took me to the land of tiles. From the moment you get off of the boat, tiles everywhere, beginning with the official welcome sign and map of Avalon:

After leaving the dock, you see tile fences, tile walls, tile ceilings, tile, tile, tile, ad infinitum.

The tiles in the following five pictures were set in a residential fence. Each tile had its own little display (loggia? portico?), and these were just the five tiles that I could get a good picture of. Each fence section all the way around the house had its own tile.

There are tile retaining walls:

Tile location signs:

Tile ceilings, walls, and water fountains:

More tile fences, these at commercial or goverment properties:

The last picture shows buffalo, and there really are buffalo (American bison) on the Island. I’m not sure how they got there, but I know that William Wrigley Sr., chewing gum magnate and founding owner of the Chicago Cubs, had a lot to do with it back at the beginning of the 20th century. I’ll know more by the time I finish this series on Santa Calalina Island because we still have to visit the Conservancy, Avalon harbor, the William Wrigley Sr. Memorial, and see some wildlife.

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