Thank you all so much for your kind comments about the book, Wesley, and your good wishes! I haven't been on the blog because I was staying with my Dad and his wife as my Dad was dying. He died and I've been home for awhile grieving and trying to process it all. I apologize for not posting or answering comments for so long! I will get caught up, though.
When I got home, I found that my dog had an intestinal blockage all the way from the end of her small intestine to the exit of her stomach and could not eat at all. She was nearly starved to death. It took me a little while to figure this out, since she still ate a little bit and drank water and did some elimination....she's always been a very picky and slow eater. But finally I realized she was in trouble and it's been a long road back and has taken my nearly undivided attention, starting with syringe feeding her colostrum, then oils that would help her to pass on the huge mass of stuff (there was even a bent nail in her intestine!). Most of it was hairballs. Her brother has been shedding like crazy, and when she plays with him, she pulls on his fur and probably was swallowing a lot of it. Anyway, she is now gaining weight but I'm still spending most of my conscious time with her.
Those of you who work in raptor and other animal rescue - Good job! I have the utmost respect for people who do this. It's hard, messy work, and you are working with animals who will never bond to you. Yet, it's got to be the most rewarding work ever for an animal lover! The opportunity to work so closely with a wild one, and to help these beauties to return to the wild, or if not that, to at least be safe, warm, and fed. That's what every animal wants, really, including humans!
In answer to Chana's comment, I cope w/ the migraines probably a lot like you do. The animals really help a lot to keep my mind off of it. I do NOT let myself get into self pity even for a second (I think about all the people who were born into horrible circumstances like slums in some places where they can't even get clean water and certainly can't get any medical care at all..and then I feel so lucky to be able to get medical help, food, water, and to have a roof over my head at all...). I also pray and make sure I don't get too isolated. I have a few friends with whom I've been very close for many years, and we talk on the phone almost daily. That helps - to stay socially connected. My disability keeps me pretty much home most of the time and often in bed, so the phone is my lifeline. I made sure I have free long distance and only pay a set fee every month - kind of like Vonage but it's through my cable company. Hmm..what else. Well, the hamsters keep me laughing and loving, and of course, Fiona, my dog.
I have not written a book for small children yet. Someone else wrote a childrens' book called "Wesley the Owl" but it's not by me! It's a self published book and I've never read it so I don't know if they're telling my story or not.
A lot of little kids read the regular book. The vast majority of parents (with a few exceptions) seem to have no issue with either letting their child read it, or reading it aloud to them.
However, I DO want to write a book for very small children. I just haven't done it yet.
I'm writing about my hamsters right now - believe it or not they ARE so interesting. So full of personality and fun and intensity and, yes, intelligence. They each have their own individual personalities and quirks and logic. I never get tired of them. Each one is a surprise and I've averaged about 40+ hamsters at a time for the last 12 years (they are each in their own separate cage, because teddy bear hamsters will kill each other if in the same cage, unless they're still babies). I'm also writing some about the rescue animals I've worked with and their stories. Right now, the format is a bit like the All Creatures Great and Small books, not to imply that I'm as good a writer as James Herriott by any stretch of the imagination!
Thank you all for your kind support and for taking the time to write to me! It really encourages me a lot to read what you have to say! I wish you all the very best in life - joy, peace, health, friendship, love.
Stacey
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Dogs can read, like Gorillas
Check out this link! Koko the Gorilla is using words and symbols to communicate, now. She has a pet dog who learned the techniques just by watching Koko's lessons. Pretty soon, the dog was using his/her nose to point at the cards w/ the symbols or words on them. You can teach your dog how to use the cards to communicate by downloading the chart that they're using for the Gorilla. They apparently have instructions for teaching your dog to communicate with you, using words and symbols!
Here is the link:
http://www.koko.org/news/news_090706_Dog_Lang_Board.html
Enjoy!
-Stacey
Here is the link:
http://www.koko.org/news/news_090706_Dog_Lang_Board.html
Enjoy!
-Stacey
Friday, February 18, 2011
Fiona and Drinian - Colorado Mountain Dogs
After being in Colorado, it was such a joy to come back to my BELOVED Colorado Mountain Dog, Fiona. When I'm gone, she often stays with her brother, Drinian, from the same litter. Fiona and Drinian arrived together from Colorado and I was there with my friend, Cat, to meet them. Yes, her name is CAT. Fiona is the princess on the left. Drinian is the prince on the right. He's a little bigger...she's only about 60 lbs (probably the smallest Colorado Mountain Dog ever produced) and Drin is edging up to 200 pounds, which is more "normal". Of course, he is male, and in dogs, the male is the larger (which is weird to me. I'm used to birds of prey where the female is the larger of the two).
These two are the best of friends. They play and roughhouse all over the yard, with Fiona keeping up a snarling that you wouldn't believe, but it's all in fun. She's usually such a quiet dog! They sleep together, eat together,...they do everything together. Still, they also wear each other out. When Fiona comes home, they both sleep almost nonstop for a week or so before getting back to "normal", whatever that is.
This time, when I went to pick her up, my mother came, too. We went down the street and visited Cat's horse, who lives with two goats and a pig! YES! The pig is highly intelligent and opinionated, and I pretty much fell in love with her. She does what she wants, when she wants, and is not cowed by the interests of humans! When Cat goes riding, there are the two white dogs, the black pig, and two black and white goats strolling along beside her. What a sight.
The pig made it very clear that we were to rub her tummy immediately, and we did so, with great enthusiasm. She was clean and cute! She made me think of Sy Montgomery's pig Christopher Hogwood from "The Good, Good Pig".
If you haven't read "The Good Good Pig" what are you waiting for? It's a wonderful book! Sy misses Christopher like I miss Wesley. And I miss Wesley as if he had just died yesterday. I miss him viscerally.
I did a talk at the G2 Art Gallery in Venice Beach, CA. last week, and Luna was there. Luna is an unreleasable female barn owl, whose human is a dedicated rehabilitator named Christina. It was so great to see both of them, and being able to interact with Luna made me miss Wesley all that much more. Luna is all personality and I love her. It's always a privilege to work alongside one of Wesley's "cousins" and it always makes me long for Wesley.
But at least Fiona is there for a good cuddle to ease the longing. Fiona is a dear, dear dog. She has a gentle spirit and a quiet way about her, yet she can be very protective at the same time. You can see in the picture that she's smiling! Don't these two dogs make a great pair?
Fiona is my dear, dedicated, beloved girl and I love her so much. She sleeps on the bed with me and is a great cuddler. I don't know how she stays so clean, but she's almost fanatical about it, and that makes it easier than ever to cuddle with her.
Sunday will ber her and Drinian's second birthday. Happy Birthday Fiona and Drinian!
Stacey
Friday, February 4, 2011
Finding the GOLD...(warning: Verbose=ON)
I woke up thinking about all the important things I've learned in my field, that were not a result of lectures or books, and how I learned them. I think it's pretty important to think about this, especially if you're a kid who wants to learn about a certain subject or hobby, or a young person starting out in a chosen field.
What triggered these thoughts? I've been watching "Mutant Planet" and marveling at how well they explain the way species in an ecosystem are completely dependent upon each other, and how they're perfectly adapted to their exact environment. Take away one aspect of that environment and they are completely undone.
Recently, they've been showing an episode about the lemurs of Madigascar. Madigascar is one of the most unusual, amazing, "Dr. Seuss" looking places on the planet. And I love the lemurs. I used to work w/ lemurs - not work in the true sense of working, but I fed and cared for them and spent many, many hours with them, being groomed by them and grooming them back, just learning about their ways just like I did with Wesley. This was at that job I had before the owls.
I learned soooo much about primates in general there, and certain species specifically. But how did I learn so much if my job was just cleaning up after them, feeding them, and hanging out with them?
I kept my eyes and ears open and I was raging curious about everything. That's how I've learned a lot of what I've learned in the great halls of academia, or in the trenches of fieldwork or the drudgery/excitement of wildlife rehab. I've kept my head down and learned from listening to those around me. NO, not the gossip stuff. Toss it. No one needs it. "who is with who, who said what to who"...you can get that stuff anywhere there are humans. No, I'm talking about the nuggets.
The Nuggets that are Pure Gold.
Examples from my life at Caltech:
I've got my ears wide open because the great man Himself is in the lab. He is the head of the lab - the primatologist who studies these lemurs and is working to help with breeding programs aimed at keeping them from going extinct (perhaps Madagascar can be reforested then repopulated. Maybe we can find land in the USA w/ a similar climate, Hawaii? ..and plant miles of it in the same way as Madagascar and re-release lemurs there to flourish).
He tells a horror story about some institution where the caging wasn't done quite right and a monkey's tail was caught in it and he died over the night because no one was there that night to see it and he hung upside down all night and died. HORROR! You mean, that can be the consequence of the smallest mistake in proper caging? YES! I took that lesson to heart and when I had Wesley I was exTREMELY careful about every aspect of his environment.
I learned a lot by listening to his conversations w/ his post-docs while I was feeding or grooming monkeys nearby. It wasn't until I saw the Lemur episode of "Mutant Planet", though, that I realized just how much I did know about both lemurs and Madagascar. I knew pretty much everything they talked about, minus a few recent discoveries! How?
The Big Guy would come home from a trip to Madagascar and I'd hear him telling people about it. "We discovered 6 new prehistoric fossil types of lemur"...."There was a huge lemur only a few hundred years ago, probably wiped out by early deforestation when man first came to the island - the size of a gibbon or chimp!"..."The deforestation is wiping out the entire island...it's so frustrating - how can we work with the natives to convince them not to destroy their own environment? Theyr'e talking about a new concept that can help these areas - Ecotourism, they're calling it. If the forest calls in tourism, the people will begin to value the forest for the money it brings in. It's worth a shot!"
Or
Listening to him AGONIZING over a sister organization that keeps interfering with the baby lemurs. This institution to the north is trying to establish a similar breeding program to replenish the earth with lemurs (oh if you were to meet one, you'd feel as if the earth would just die if we didn't have lemurs! They're sweet to a fault, innocent. affectionate, and they look like they were made up by Dr. Seuss). This lab has a STUPID policy where every time a lemur gives birth, the idiot scientists (yes, some scientists can also be idiots - this is not a contradiction in terms here), would gown up, put on gloves and face masks to protect the baby lemur from human germs (we share diseases with primates, even prosimians), and reach into the nesting box and pull the baby out of the screaming mother's arms.
The mother probably didn't even recognize them as her friends, with that getup they were wearing.
Then they'd weigh, take down blood, measure the baby - all the things that they think they need for their records...these people have lost sight of the Big Picture in a HUGE WAY. They think it's about the scientific method, whereas their scientific method is the reason for their failure. Here's why:
They return the baby to the now hysterical mom and tiptoe out of the area (after all, everyone knows you should not disturb a new mother primate).
But it's too late. Some switch has gone off in the mother's brain or hormonal system. And just like clockwork, and in a scientifically verifiable way, the mother quits caring for the baby. She casts him aside, throws him over her shoulder like a piece of sacking, she throws him out the door of the high nesting box. Within hours the baby is dead. EVERY SINGLE BABY THAT HAS EVER BEEN BORN AT THIS FACILITY HAS DIED THIS WAY!
So what do the esteemed scientists at this esteemed academic facility DO? They call the Big Guy Primatologist at Caltech with their lament. "It didn't work again! She abandoned the baby! What do we do? Oh what oh what?"
Primatologist is getting sick of these calls. Getting sick of telling them NOT to take the baby out and weigh and measure it. To stay the H AWAY from the new family for about 2 weeks other than going in quickly to quietly clean and feed then GET OUT!
They never take his advice and he keeps getting these sad calls.
So one day he loses his temper (in the rather quiet way that a dignified scientist loses his temper). He vents to his postdocs.
I hear the whole story. I LEARN. I LEARN AND LEARN AND LEARN!
And LEARN!
So why am I telling you this?
If you're 12, 14, 16....and you can't get where you want to be yet, but you know you REALLY want to learn more than you're learning now, what can you do? If you've just gotten out of college but you need experience, what can you do to learn more, to gain experience?
You can get a grunt job in a GREAT PLACE and keep your eyes and ears open. That's huge. It's a lot more than people realize. A lot of people eschew "grunt jobs" but they can be your best bet. They can be GOLD for you if you know how to work it.
The way you work it is you learn as much as you can - actively. You listen, you watch, you ask questions.
Let's say you get to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center, but you're only allowed to clean cages. Maybe they let you help cut up food. WONDERFUL! This is your way in to learning about how to run a wildlife center - every aspect of it.
As you clean an enclosure, take a good, hard look at it. Why does every bird of prey enclosure have a long, thick piece of wood running diagonally up to the top perches, and why is it covered in astroturf? Sure, astroturf might be easier to clean than just wood, but that can't be the only reason, can it? If you don't figure it out, ask someone. Answer: When we get injured birds of prey who will never be able to fly again, are they supposed to sit on the damp, cold ground? Is it even normal for their feet to sit on the ground? Won't they become very anxious on the ground, where their instincts tell them theyr'e in big trouble? If they're that terrified, could the stress kill them? Yes it could. So you give them a way to walk up to the kind of higher perch they're used to. But wait, there's not just a perch up there, there's also an astroturf platform that goes back into a corner. In fact, when you clean the cage, the birds crowd into that high corner and threaten you. It gives them a stable place to rest if their balance is off. Say they only have one wing - it's much more difficult to perch naturally, so they go to the platform to rest.
The astroturf gives them something to hang on to, especially if they're crippled in some way and thrown off balance.
Now you know.
Why are they using netting in the big eagle flight cages instead of just a roof? Could it be because the big snow storm of '88 collapsed all the roofs nearly killing the animals inside and the center learned a hard lesson?
This is the GOLD that you can dig up from a grunt job. I have learned as much in life by keeping my eyes and ears open as I have from study - and THAT is saying a LOT. Cuz I am ALWAYS reading.
I read so much that, when I was a kid, my mom sometimes had to take a book away and hide it so I would sleep. Otherwise I'd be up all night w/ a flashlight, my pillow folded in half so that when I heard her coming I could flip the folded half of the pillow over the book and act like I'm asleep. Then she'd leave and I'd resume reading. She couldn't help but notice if I was completely exhausted the next day. So she had to sometimes STOP me from reading. I read while I walked, I read during recess, I read in the car, in the bathtub, at the table - my Dad is the same way. I'm not saying we're antisocial, just that we read a lot.
But still, I've learned more from keeping my eyes and ears open and learning from people who know more than I do.
And never thinking I know all of it.
If I were a kid who was frustrated and wanting to get on with things, I'd look for a place where i can learn a heck of a lot from the people around me, while doing the most menial of work nearby.
And it's amazing the college level stuff you can learn from TV shows like Mutant Planet - quality shows that explain how everything goes together. We used to learn that kind of stuff in college lectures!
And don't forget that itunes has a free university - you can hear physics lectures from MIT, you can hear the stuff you're interested in, by the best lecturers in the world, from the best schools in the world (Harvard, MIT, etc) by just downloading it! WOW! We never had anything like that! If you took physics, it was the FIRST TIME you had heard ANY of it and you were going to be tested on it in a week! NOW you have a huge edge! You can hear and learn it all before you even TAKE physics. That is also Pure GOLD!
Sorry if this seems lectury. In a book I'd weave all this through a story of some kind but that takes a lot longer to craft and I just wanted to say it right out.
The next book will have Wesley in it, but it's broader. It's about many of the animals I've loved and known, and their stories. Wesley was there all along, of course, and had his strong opinions, which I will write about. But I can't just retell his story again, right? I imagine you'll want to hear about some of the other amazing animals I've encountered, loved, and known. They all have their story to tell, and such stories they are!!!
Happy Ground Hog Day (I was born on Groundhog Day - the ONLY day we have that's named after an animal. I've always loved that!)
-Stacey
What triggered these thoughts? I've been watching "Mutant Planet" and marveling at how well they explain the way species in an ecosystem are completely dependent upon each other, and how they're perfectly adapted to their exact environment. Take away one aspect of that environment and they are completely undone.
Recently, they've been showing an episode about the lemurs of Madigascar. Madigascar is one of the most unusual, amazing, "Dr. Seuss" looking places on the planet. And I love the lemurs. I used to work w/ lemurs - not work in the true sense of working, but I fed and cared for them and spent many, many hours with them, being groomed by them and grooming them back, just learning about their ways just like I did with Wesley. This was at that job I had before the owls.
I learned soooo much about primates in general there, and certain species specifically. But how did I learn so much if my job was just cleaning up after them, feeding them, and hanging out with them?
I kept my eyes and ears open and I was raging curious about everything. That's how I've learned a lot of what I've learned in the great halls of academia, or in the trenches of fieldwork or the drudgery/excitement of wildlife rehab. I've kept my head down and learned from listening to those around me. NO, not the gossip stuff. Toss it. No one needs it. "who is with who, who said what to who"...you can get that stuff anywhere there are humans. No, I'm talking about the nuggets.
The Nuggets that are Pure Gold.
Examples from my life at Caltech:
I've got my ears wide open because the great man Himself is in the lab. He is the head of the lab - the primatologist who studies these lemurs and is working to help with breeding programs aimed at keeping them from going extinct (perhaps Madagascar can be reforested then repopulated. Maybe we can find land in the USA w/ a similar climate, Hawaii? ..and plant miles of it in the same way as Madagascar and re-release lemurs there to flourish).
He tells a horror story about some institution where the caging wasn't done quite right and a monkey's tail was caught in it and he died over the night because no one was there that night to see it and he hung upside down all night and died. HORROR! You mean, that can be the consequence of the smallest mistake in proper caging? YES! I took that lesson to heart and when I had Wesley I was exTREMELY careful about every aspect of his environment.
I learned a lot by listening to his conversations w/ his post-docs while I was feeding or grooming monkeys nearby. It wasn't until I saw the Lemur episode of "Mutant Planet", though, that I realized just how much I did know about both lemurs and Madagascar. I knew pretty much everything they talked about, minus a few recent discoveries! How?
The Big Guy would come home from a trip to Madagascar and I'd hear him telling people about it. "We discovered 6 new prehistoric fossil types of lemur"...."There was a huge lemur only a few hundred years ago, probably wiped out by early deforestation when man first came to the island - the size of a gibbon or chimp!"..."The deforestation is wiping out the entire island...it's so frustrating - how can we work with the natives to convince them not to destroy their own environment? Theyr'e talking about a new concept that can help these areas - Ecotourism, they're calling it. If the forest calls in tourism, the people will begin to value the forest for the money it brings in. It's worth a shot!"
Or
Listening to him AGONIZING over a sister organization that keeps interfering with the baby lemurs. This institution to the north is trying to establish a similar breeding program to replenish the earth with lemurs (oh if you were to meet one, you'd feel as if the earth would just die if we didn't have lemurs! They're sweet to a fault, innocent. affectionate, and they look like they were made up by Dr. Seuss). This lab has a STUPID policy where every time a lemur gives birth, the idiot scientists (yes, some scientists can also be idiots - this is not a contradiction in terms here), would gown up, put on gloves and face masks to protect the baby lemur from human germs (we share diseases with primates, even prosimians), and reach into the nesting box and pull the baby out of the screaming mother's arms.
The mother probably didn't even recognize them as her friends, with that getup they were wearing.
Then they'd weigh, take down blood, measure the baby - all the things that they think they need for their records...these people have lost sight of the Big Picture in a HUGE WAY. They think it's about the scientific method, whereas their scientific method is the reason for their failure. Here's why:
They return the baby to the now hysterical mom and tiptoe out of the area (after all, everyone knows you should not disturb a new mother primate).
But it's too late. Some switch has gone off in the mother's brain or hormonal system. And just like clockwork, and in a scientifically verifiable way, the mother quits caring for the baby. She casts him aside, throws him over her shoulder like a piece of sacking, she throws him out the door of the high nesting box. Within hours the baby is dead. EVERY SINGLE BABY THAT HAS EVER BEEN BORN AT THIS FACILITY HAS DIED THIS WAY!
So what do the esteemed scientists at this esteemed academic facility DO? They call the Big Guy Primatologist at Caltech with their lament. "It didn't work again! She abandoned the baby! What do we do? Oh what oh what?"
Primatologist is getting sick of these calls. Getting sick of telling them NOT to take the baby out and weigh and measure it. To stay the H AWAY from the new family for about 2 weeks other than going in quickly to quietly clean and feed then GET OUT!
They never take his advice and he keeps getting these sad calls.
So one day he loses his temper (in the rather quiet way that a dignified scientist loses his temper). He vents to his postdocs.
I hear the whole story. I LEARN. I LEARN AND LEARN AND LEARN!
And LEARN!
So why am I telling you this?
If you're 12, 14, 16....and you can't get where you want to be yet, but you know you REALLY want to learn more than you're learning now, what can you do? If you've just gotten out of college but you need experience, what can you do to learn more, to gain experience?
You can get a grunt job in a GREAT PLACE and keep your eyes and ears open. That's huge. It's a lot more than people realize. A lot of people eschew "grunt jobs" but they can be your best bet. They can be GOLD for you if you know how to work it.
The way you work it is you learn as much as you can - actively. You listen, you watch, you ask questions.
Let's say you get to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center, but you're only allowed to clean cages. Maybe they let you help cut up food. WONDERFUL! This is your way in to learning about how to run a wildlife center - every aspect of it.
As you clean an enclosure, take a good, hard look at it. Why does every bird of prey enclosure have a long, thick piece of wood running diagonally up to the top perches, and why is it covered in astroturf? Sure, astroturf might be easier to clean than just wood, but that can't be the only reason, can it? If you don't figure it out, ask someone. Answer: When we get injured birds of prey who will never be able to fly again, are they supposed to sit on the damp, cold ground? Is it even normal for their feet to sit on the ground? Won't they become very anxious on the ground, where their instincts tell them theyr'e in big trouble? If they're that terrified, could the stress kill them? Yes it could. So you give them a way to walk up to the kind of higher perch they're used to. But wait, there's not just a perch up there, there's also an astroturf platform that goes back into a corner. In fact, when you clean the cage, the birds crowd into that high corner and threaten you. It gives them a stable place to rest if their balance is off. Say they only have one wing - it's much more difficult to perch naturally, so they go to the platform to rest.
The astroturf gives them something to hang on to, especially if they're crippled in some way and thrown off balance.
Now you know.
Why are they using netting in the big eagle flight cages instead of just a roof? Could it be because the big snow storm of '88 collapsed all the roofs nearly killing the animals inside and the center learned a hard lesson?
This is the GOLD that you can dig up from a grunt job. I have learned as much in life by keeping my eyes and ears open as I have from study - and THAT is saying a LOT. Cuz I am ALWAYS reading.
I read so much that, when I was a kid, my mom sometimes had to take a book away and hide it so I would sleep. Otherwise I'd be up all night w/ a flashlight, my pillow folded in half so that when I heard her coming I could flip the folded half of the pillow over the book and act like I'm asleep. Then she'd leave and I'd resume reading. She couldn't help but notice if I was completely exhausted the next day. So she had to sometimes STOP me from reading. I read while I walked, I read during recess, I read in the car, in the bathtub, at the table - my Dad is the same way. I'm not saying we're antisocial, just that we read a lot.
But still, I've learned more from keeping my eyes and ears open and learning from people who know more than I do.
And never thinking I know all of it.
If I were a kid who was frustrated and wanting to get on with things, I'd look for a place where i can learn a heck of a lot from the people around me, while doing the most menial of work nearby.
And it's amazing the college level stuff you can learn from TV shows like Mutant Planet - quality shows that explain how everything goes together. We used to learn that kind of stuff in college lectures!
And don't forget that itunes has a free university - you can hear physics lectures from MIT, you can hear the stuff you're interested in, by the best lecturers in the world, from the best schools in the world (Harvard, MIT, etc) by just downloading it! WOW! We never had anything like that! If you took physics, it was the FIRST TIME you had heard ANY of it and you were going to be tested on it in a week! NOW you have a huge edge! You can hear and learn it all before you even TAKE physics. That is also Pure GOLD!
Sorry if this seems lectury. In a book I'd weave all this through a story of some kind but that takes a lot longer to craft and I just wanted to say it right out.
The next book will have Wesley in it, but it's broader. It's about many of the animals I've loved and known, and their stories. Wesley was there all along, of course, and had his strong opinions, which I will write about. But I can't just retell his story again, right? I imagine you'll want to hear about some of the other amazing animals I've encountered, loved, and known. They all have their story to tell, and such stories they are!!!
Happy Ground Hog Day (I was born on Groundhog Day - the ONLY day we have that's named after an animal. I've always loved that!)
-Stacey
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Barefoot in the Snow
I've been in Colorado recently. I am so enjoying the snow and the nice, cool weather. There's just enough snow to keep a little bit of groundcover and to make everything beautiful - white snow, blue skies, green trees.
Ever since I got sick, I run waay too hot. I'm ALWAYS too hot, so I'll be wearing a summer sundress in 20 degree weather, when everyone else is wearing jackets and boots.
So when it gets to be a balmy 40-50 degrees (remember, it's extremely dry here, so it's not a damp cold at all), I like to step outside barefoot and walk in the snow to cool off.
I've mostly just been resting here in Colorado, but even from the house I enjoy the wildlife immensely. There has been a group of 4 bucks who hang out together, who come by here daily and often sleep here, too, on Cait's land. I occasionally buy a small bag of Timothy hay to put out for them, and they seem to appreciate it. Two of the bucks are gorgeous 8 pointers, although one of them is growing a new set of points. One is almost black, he's such a dark gray, and the other is brown. Both have beautiful, thick coats, big soulful eyes, beautiful long eyelashes, delicate legs...they are just enchanting. The two smaller ones are 4 point bucks. The big, dominant guys get to eat the hay first, then they MAY let the others graze.
They've gotten used to seeing me and are not too afraid anymore.
But a funny thing happened yesterday. I went out the back door because I was too hot, and lay down in the snow to make a snow angel, in order to cool off. I puttered around for awhile, then heard what sounded like a trumpet and exhalation of breath all at once. The biggest buck had been standing right near me, in the aspens, all that time, and had been so absorbed in whatever he was doing that he hadn't noticed me, nor I him. When he suddenly realized I was right there, outside the house, he completely lost his composure, whirled on one foot, bellowed a trumpeting sound, and raced up the hill. Then he stopped and looked back at me a bit sheepishly, as if he were embarrassed for losing it so thoroughly. I bet his buddies are teasing him about trumpeting when he saw me! haha.
Then he picked his way back, acting casual, nibbling here and there at sprouts, as if to say (in the way cats do), "I meant to do that". Pretty cute.
Apparently he wasn't all that terrified because he and his gang later decided to spend the day lying around chewing their cud near the house.
The other thing I love about snow is the way it keeps a record of all the wildlife that has passed by. I'm enjoying studying the tracks of all the different characters that pass our way without our ever even knowing it. It's so quiet here that I can hear the footsteps of the deer when they come, and hear their breath and chewing sounds, while I'm lying in bed inside the house. If someone walks on the road below, I can hear their footsteps. If a car comes by, everyone hears it and wants to know who it is and what are they doing here?
This is how people were meant to live. We lived like this for millenia before we became so used to the noise of a modern city. I crave the relative silence of the wilderness!
I hope you all had a great holiday season!
-Stacey
Ever since I got sick, I run waay too hot. I'm ALWAYS too hot, so I'll be wearing a summer sundress in 20 degree weather, when everyone else is wearing jackets and boots.
So when it gets to be a balmy 40-50 degrees (remember, it's extremely dry here, so it's not a damp cold at all), I like to step outside barefoot and walk in the snow to cool off.
I've mostly just been resting here in Colorado, but even from the house I enjoy the wildlife immensely. There has been a group of 4 bucks who hang out together, who come by here daily and often sleep here, too, on Cait's land. I occasionally buy a small bag of Timothy hay to put out for them, and they seem to appreciate it. Two of the bucks are gorgeous 8 pointers, although one of them is growing a new set of points. One is almost black, he's such a dark gray, and the other is brown. Both have beautiful, thick coats, big soulful eyes, beautiful long eyelashes, delicate legs...they are just enchanting. The two smaller ones are 4 point bucks. The big, dominant guys get to eat the hay first, then they MAY let the others graze.
They've gotten used to seeing me and are not too afraid anymore.
But a funny thing happened yesterday. I went out the back door because I was too hot, and lay down in the snow to make a snow angel, in order to cool off. I puttered around for awhile, then heard what sounded like a trumpet and exhalation of breath all at once. The biggest buck had been standing right near me, in the aspens, all that time, and had been so absorbed in whatever he was doing that he hadn't noticed me, nor I him. When he suddenly realized I was right there, outside the house, he completely lost his composure, whirled on one foot, bellowed a trumpeting sound, and raced up the hill. Then he stopped and looked back at me a bit sheepishly, as if he were embarrassed for losing it so thoroughly. I bet his buddies are teasing him about trumpeting when he saw me! haha.
Then he picked his way back, acting casual, nibbling here and there at sprouts, as if to say (in the way cats do), "I meant to do that". Pretty cute.
Apparently he wasn't all that terrified because he and his gang later decided to spend the day lying around chewing their cud near the house.
The other thing I love about snow is the way it keeps a record of all the wildlife that has passed by. I'm enjoying studying the tracks of all the different characters that pass our way without our ever even knowing it. It's so quiet here that I can hear the footsteps of the deer when they come, and hear their breath and chewing sounds, while I'm lying in bed inside the house. If someone walks on the road below, I can hear their footsteps. If a car comes by, everyone hears it and wants to know who it is and what are they doing here?
This is how people were meant to live. We lived like this for millenia before we became so used to the noise of a modern city. I crave the relative silence of the wilderness!
I hope you all had a great holiday season!
-Stacey
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Cute pic of a gerbil, plus I'm speaking in L.A., CA.
see more Daily Squee
I couldn't resist putting up this pic of a gerbil. Hamsters are a little like gerbils and both are so cute!
Make sure you mark your calendar, or tell anyone you know in the Los Angeles area who might be interested, that I'm speaking in Los Angeles and signing books (they'll sell them there, too, if you don't have one to sign), on Dec 14. Here are the specifics:
Stacey at Audubon Center in Los Angeles
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 7:00pm
Audubon Center at Debs Park, Los Angeles, CA
The event is free and open to the public.
Hope to see you there!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Speaking in LA + Legend of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole
Before I get started talking about that, let me remind any of you living near Los Angeles, CA. that I'll be speaking and signing books at the Audubon meeting on Dec 14, 2010. Keith Malone will be keeping everyone up to date. Details can be seen at the Wesley the Owl facebook, and here they are as well:
----------------------
Wesley the Owl Stacey will appear at the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles to talk about Wesley and her 19 years with him. She will be available to answer questions and sign books. Copies of "Wesley the Owl" will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to the public.
Stacey at Audubon Center in Los Angeles
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 7:00pm
Audubon Center at Debs Park, Los Angeles, CA
---------------------
OK - About the Guardians of Ga'Hoole!
I JUST finished watching the Legend of the Guardians in my hotel room. WOW! I'm so impressed with how well they represented each species of owl! Of course, they had to take artistic license. For example, Tyto (barn owls) owls don't have a colored iris with a pupil that we can see. They have ebony black eyes with no "whites". If you see their eyes in the light, and from the side, you can tell that they do, of course, have a pupil and iris, but both are so dark that the look is one of pure black eyes. I can see why they needed to make the eyes more human, though, for the movie. Humans look to small changes in the eyes for emotion - even the slightest widening or narrowing of the pupil portrays a lot emotionally. So they took license on that. And the beaks are WAAAY smaller in the movie than they are in real life - in real life Wesley's beak reached almost all the way to his ears. The dainty part you see talking in the movie is just the pink tip that shows through the feathers. Again, that license doesn't bother me.
What thrilled me was that they really got some other details right. The feathering was just amazing, although they used different subspecies of Tyto for the characters. Hey that's ok. Tyto (barn owls) are found on every continent except Antarctica, and they look somewhat different from each other because they are different species or rather, subspecies. So the differences you see from one Tyto to another are based on the different types of Tyto. In the USA, we have Tyto Alba, which is what the main character, Soren, is. So is his younger sister, Eglantine, apparently. And she looks JUST like a baby barn owl should look at about 5 and 1/2 weeks old!
Another thing that thrilled me is the way they got the little body language aspects just right. The way they move, walk, shift their weight, all that was right on. And the way they move and use their talons was perfect. Even the fight scenes had it right - with them attacking each other w talons up, and sometimes falling while circling each other, talons locked. Birds of prey do that when fighting, sometimes falling all the way to the ground like that. People think they're mating when they do that but they're actually fighting. I've heard that some species of eagle or hawk may mate while spiraling like that, but I'm betting that's a misunderstanding. When owls are doing that, they're fighting.
Little things made a difference and they got them right. There's a moment when an owl is asked a question and his answer is "no". Instead of verbalizing it, they had the owl look to the side. That is how a barn owl says no! He looks away, off to the side. I have video of me asking Wesley a series of questions and getting yes and no answers. The "no" is him looking away to the side. These people really know their barn owls!
Another thing I loved is how they used real owl sounds throughout, even though they also had the owls speaking English w/ an Australian accent (well, hey, it's a fantasy, right?). But when an owl would fly off, he'd make a screech or sound that was accurate to his species.
They also caught the little differences between how each owl species moves and acts. Digger the burrowing owl is a perfect example in the way he flits around so fast, seeming hyper. That's how they are. I love burrowing owls and they are just like that in their body movements.
The movie starts out with the parents working with the two oldest owls on their BRANCHING LESSONS! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
SO many people in the US just don't seem to understand that OWLS DO NOT GO TO THE GROUND THEN LEARN TO FLY! If they end up on the ground they are totally out of their element and are easy pickin's for predators. And that is exactly portrayed correctly in the movie. I was beyond happy to see that they showed how owls REALLY learn to fly, and that is by fly-hopping from one branch to another, literally learning what works and what doesn't by trial and error! Why is that so difficult for Americans to understand and accept? THIS IS HOW THEY LEARN TO FLY!
The people who did this movie really did their research. They really knew owls. They had the mother barn owl be significantly larger than the father. That is accurate. She is browner. That is accurate.
I remember one time I started out as a new volunteer at a bird of prey rescue and rehab center. There was one large mew with about 25 barn owls in it. The supervisor took me in there and said she had questions about barn owls that maybe I could answer. She wanted to know how to tell the males from the females and I explained that there's a continuum -- Males are very light to white on the chest and tummy, and females are brown at the far end, fading to very light brown in the middle of the spectrum. It's when they're a little bit brown and mostly white that it becomes hard to know exactly which gender the owl is. She described it perfectly when she said, "You mean, the ones who look like they've been rolling in the dust are the females? I thought they were just dirty!" That's just what they look like! Males who've been rolling in the dust!
They even got the stippled look of the eyelids and skin around the eyes right. And the way the pink talons have little pads on them and tiny padlike patterns on their feet, and how they use their talons to hold onto things, either using both, or they'll stand on one foot and use the other talon to pick something up and hold it. They just really understood how an owl's body works and moves. I've never seen anyone get it that right before.
Animators and artists almost always miss it when they try to do barn owl faces. It's like, if you don't know one personally, it's difficult to portray them. Maybe that's because they are so expressive. They really can make a lot of facial expressions because they have a lot of tiny muscles under their facial feathers, which are used to adjust the feathers on their faces to funnel sound into their ears more accurately. Some of the facial expressions were not owlish and were distinctly human, but that's to be expected. This is, after all, a fantasy and we suspend reality for it. Owls don't speak English w/ an Australian accent, for example. And the head and claw armor would weigh them down too much and would impede their main sense, which is hearing. But hey, they got so much of it right that it's amazing. And the artistry! Each feather having a dot at the end - how perfect that is!
And the little sounds each owl made (outside of the human speech) were accurate to their species.
It's a movie about good vs. evil, and has a bit of the "Luke! Use the Force" thing going on, but the visual beauty of the owls themselves and the accuracy about their lives and what makes them tick was so informative and needed in this owl-uneducated world. Owls are so mysterious and wonderful and I'm glad to see some of their mysteries shown off to the world. They are super faithful, super-loyal, cuddly w/ their mate, loving, fierce, and beautiful. What an amazing movie for all of those reasons!
I'm so happy to see owls taking their rightful place in our culture as a celebrated animal in art, popular art and fiction, books, films...even fabric and decorative items like owl lamps and owl sheets! How un! I think people are starting to realize that these creatures are highly intelligent, deeply emotional, fascinating, and beautiful, and resourceful, loyal, fierce, and are to be admired greatly! YAY! GO OWLS!
(this is a completely unbiased opinion! haha)
-Stacey
PS: I just put this up w/o editing it yet so I'm sure there are grammar and spelling mistakes but I'll deal w/ that later. I'm tired and am going to bed....my apologies for any sloppiness....
----------------------
Wesley the Owl Stacey will appear at the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles to talk about Wesley and her 19 years with him. She will be available to answer questions and sign books. Copies of "Wesley the Owl" will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to the public.
Stacey at Audubon Center in Los Angeles
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 7:00pm
Audubon Center at Debs Park, Los Angeles, CA
---------------------
OK - About the Guardians of Ga'Hoole!
I JUST finished watching the Legend of the Guardians in my hotel room. WOW! I'm so impressed with how well they represented each species of owl! Of course, they had to take artistic license. For example, Tyto (barn owls) owls don't have a colored iris with a pupil that we can see. They have ebony black eyes with no "whites". If you see their eyes in the light, and from the side, you can tell that they do, of course, have a pupil and iris, but both are so dark that the look is one of pure black eyes. I can see why they needed to make the eyes more human, though, for the movie. Humans look to small changes in the eyes for emotion - even the slightest widening or narrowing of the pupil portrays a lot emotionally. So they took license on that. And the beaks are WAAAY smaller in the movie than they are in real life - in real life Wesley's beak reached almost all the way to his ears. The dainty part you see talking in the movie is just the pink tip that shows through the feathers. Again, that license doesn't bother me.
What thrilled me was that they really got some other details right. The feathering was just amazing, although they used different subspecies of Tyto for the characters. Hey that's ok. Tyto (barn owls) are found on every continent except Antarctica, and they look somewhat different from each other because they are different species or rather, subspecies. So the differences you see from one Tyto to another are based on the different types of Tyto. In the USA, we have Tyto Alba, which is what the main character, Soren, is. So is his younger sister, Eglantine, apparently. And she looks JUST like a baby barn owl should look at about 5 and 1/2 weeks old!
Another thing that thrilled me is the way they got the little body language aspects just right. The way they move, walk, shift their weight, all that was right on. And the way they move and use their talons was perfect. Even the fight scenes had it right - with them attacking each other w talons up, and sometimes falling while circling each other, talons locked. Birds of prey do that when fighting, sometimes falling all the way to the ground like that. People think they're mating when they do that but they're actually fighting. I've heard that some species of eagle or hawk may mate while spiraling like that, but I'm betting that's a misunderstanding. When owls are doing that, they're fighting.
Little things made a difference and they got them right. There's a moment when an owl is asked a question and his answer is "no". Instead of verbalizing it, they had the owl look to the side. That is how a barn owl says no! He looks away, off to the side. I have video of me asking Wesley a series of questions and getting yes and no answers. The "no" is him looking away to the side. These people really know their barn owls!
Another thing I loved is how they used real owl sounds throughout, even though they also had the owls speaking English w/ an Australian accent (well, hey, it's a fantasy, right?). But when an owl would fly off, he'd make a screech or sound that was accurate to his species.
They also caught the little differences between how each owl species moves and acts. Digger the burrowing owl is a perfect example in the way he flits around so fast, seeming hyper. That's how they are. I love burrowing owls and they are just like that in their body movements.
The movie starts out with the parents working with the two oldest owls on their BRANCHING LESSONS! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
SO many people in the US just don't seem to understand that OWLS DO NOT GO TO THE GROUND THEN LEARN TO FLY! If they end up on the ground they are totally out of their element and are easy pickin's for predators. And that is exactly portrayed correctly in the movie. I was beyond happy to see that they showed how owls REALLY learn to fly, and that is by fly-hopping from one branch to another, literally learning what works and what doesn't by trial and error! Why is that so difficult for Americans to understand and accept? THIS IS HOW THEY LEARN TO FLY!
The people who did this movie really did their research. They really knew owls. They had the mother barn owl be significantly larger than the father. That is accurate. She is browner. That is accurate.
I remember one time I started out as a new volunteer at a bird of prey rescue and rehab center. There was one large mew with about 25 barn owls in it. The supervisor took me in there and said she had questions about barn owls that maybe I could answer. She wanted to know how to tell the males from the females and I explained that there's a continuum -- Males are very light to white on the chest and tummy, and females are brown at the far end, fading to very light brown in the middle of the spectrum. It's when they're a little bit brown and mostly white that it becomes hard to know exactly which gender the owl is. She described it perfectly when she said, "You mean, the ones who look like they've been rolling in the dust are the females? I thought they were just dirty!" That's just what they look like! Males who've been rolling in the dust!
They even got the stippled look of the eyelids and skin around the eyes right. And the way the pink talons have little pads on them and tiny padlike patterns on their feet, and how they use their talons to hold onto things, either using both, or they'll stand on one foot and use the other talon to pick something up and hold it. They just really understood how an owl's body works and moves. I've never seen anyone get it that right before.
Animators and artists almost always miss it when they try to do barn owl faces. It's like, if you don't know one personally, it's difficult to portray them. Maybe that's because they are so expressive. They really can make a lot of facial expressions because they have a lot of tiny muscles under their facial feathers, which are used to adjust the feathers on their faces to funnel sound into their ears more accurately. Some of the facial expressions were not owlish and were distinctly human, but that's to be expected. This is, after all, a fantasy and we suspend reality for it. Owls don't speak English w/ an Australian accent, for example. And the head and claw armor would weigh them down too much and would impede their main sense, which is hearing. But hey, they got so much of it right that it's amazing. And the artistry! Each feather having a dot at the end - how perfect that is!
And the little sounds each owl made (outside of the human speech) were accurate to their species.
It's a movie about good vs. evil, and has a bit of the "Luke! Use the Force" thing going on, but the visual beauty of the owls themselves and the accuracy about their lives and what makes them tick was so informative and needed in this owl-uneducated world. Owls are so mysterious and wonderful and I'm glad to see some of their mysteries shown off to the world. They are super faithful, super-loyal, cuddly w/ their mate, loving, fierce, and beautiful. What an amazing movie for all of those reasons!
I'm so happy to see owls taking their rightful place in our culture as a celebrated animal in art, popular art and fiction, books, films...even fabric and decorative items like owl lamps and owl sheets! How un! I think people are starting to realize that these creatures are highly intelligent, deeply emotional, fascinating, and beautiful, and resourceful, loyal, fierce, and are to be admired greatly! YAY! GO OWLS!
(this is a completely unbiased opinion! haha)
-Stacey
PS: I just put this up w/o editing it yet so I'm sure there are grammar and spelling mistakes but I'll deal w/ that later. I'm tired and am going to bed....my apologies for any sloppiness....
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