My Birthday Present!

My birthday was five days ago, but Mom and Dad decided to wait until today to give me my present. I thought I was getting a bunch of little presents like some Dingos, a Happy Meal, an 8 piece meal from Popeye's, a new collar, and maybe a birthday card, but this year they decided to get me something a little different. Wanna guess what I got? You'll never guess, so I'll just tell you. They're taking me on vacation!

I have never been on vacation before. Mom and Dad go away all the time and when they are gone, I go to one of several different 'vacation homes'. This is how they always spin it - "Stubby, look where you're going. You are going to (insert name here) house for the week. Isn't that great? You are going on vacation. We'll see you in a week or more, so have a good time." Nice, huh? I don't know what got into them this year, but vacationing I will go!

Don Pardo, please tell the audience what Stubby will receive:

A nice, long, twelve hour ride in Dad's car - yippee! I love car rides and I hardly ever get to go in Dad's car. There is lots of room in there to cruise around, so Mom and Dad better put some pug proof blankets down so the whole car doesn't look like me.

A four night stay at Barkwells, a pet-friendly resort in North Carolina - wow! Look at the picture of that resort. Pretty sweet looking to me. There are almost seven fenced-in acres for motoring around, laying around, and checking pee-mail.

A two bedroom, two bath cabin with a fenced-in yard - superb! Just look at this cool cabin. There is more than enough room for a little guy like me to stretch out and relax. I'm not really sure what I'm suppose to do on vacation, but I always hear Mom talking about sleeping in late and doing a whole lotta nothing. I love doing that stuff!
A one night stay in Indianapolis followed by a visit to the Indy Pug Meetup - sweet! I can finally meet some of my blogging buddies. I know that some of them are heading to Kentucky that weekend, but my good pal Salinger is going to be around. I can't wait to meet him and his family.

Barkwells is about twenty minutes south of Asheville, so Mom and Dad plan on spending lots of time there, as well as visiting the Biltmore Estate. They are taking their bikes and my buggy so that we can do some riding. Hopefully Mom will not ring her ridiculous bike horn and annoy Dad.

We are leaving for the vacation in two weeks. Mom is making all kinds of lists because she doesn't want to forget any of my stuff. What stuff? I really don't have stuff. I don't know what she's bringing, but I hope she remembers my food. Maybe I will get some special treats for the long ride. I know Mom will bring my surfboard rug and my special collar, but what else do I need? Maybe I should make a list so that I don't forget anything!

I can't wait to get my motor running, head out on the highway, looking for adventure, and whatever comes my way! I was born to be a wild vacationing pug!

Green Festival

Mom went to the Green Festival yesterday with Sashi, a fellow zoo docent. It was Mom's first time going to the festival and she was very excited to learn about new products, initiatives, and campaigns of the green movement. I, of course, could not attend the festival. The festival wasn't a pug free zone, but a dog free zone. I wasn't too upset that I got to stay home and hang out with Dad all day because I knew that Mom would fill me in on the details when she got home.

Green Festival is a joint project between Global Exchange and Green America. The Chicago festival showcased more than 350 local and national green businesses. There were also speakers who gave presentations and participated in panel discussions. Mom and Sashi went to see Alice Waters speak, but Alice could not attend the festival due to a health issue.

Green Festival is more like an expo or tradeshow than a festival. Booths were set up in a massive hall at Chicago's Navy Pier and Mom and Sashi basically walked around checking out the booths. Since it was Mom's first time at the festival, she had really high expectations. I don't want to say that she was disappointed that she attended, but it sounds like she will not go back again next year.

Mom really liked the local aspect of the festival. All the food booths were at one end of the hall like a food court. Local vegetarian and vegan restaurants featured their best fare and from what Mom could see, it all looked really good. She only sampled a couple of desserts, but Sashi had lunch and said it was really good. The festival was totally meat free and when I heard this I was glad that I couldn't attend.

There were many local NGO's spreading their messages about various causes. The ones that Mom liked most were Chicago Wilderness Magazine, celebrating the rich natural heritage of the Chicago region by telling inspiring stories of the people and organizations working to protect local nature, Great Lakes Forever, an organization protecting and conserveing the natural wonders that are the Great Lakes, Chicago Biofuels, an organization that educates schools, organizations, public officials, and the general public about alternative fuels, and The Land Connection, an education NGO with a vision of community -based food systems in the Midwest where every farmer has the opportunity to grow food in a sustainable manner, and every person has the choice to enjoy local and organic foods.

Mom said that the best part of the festival was meeting and talking with Ken Lee, co-founder of Lotus Foods, a speciality rice company. Mom and Sashi sampled different varieties of rice and then got educated about rice and about SRI, the system of rice intensification. Ken spent a lot of them, answered all their questions, and really changed how they view rice and rice production. In an effort to spare you the confusing details that emergered from Mom's scatterbrain when she tried to explain things to me, the following information is from the Lotus Foods website:

SRI – One Seed Revolution
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which is at the forefront of a grassroots rice revolution, is an ecologically sound method of rice production that helps resource-limited farmers in Asia, Africa and Latin America to improve their yields, health, livelihoods and environment while producing better quality and more nutritious rice.

Optimizing the Potential of Each Individual Seed with SRI
SRI is a set of concepts and practices that change the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients used in growing rice. Normally, farmers transplant seedlings 3 to 6 weeks old, randomly and closely-spaced into flooded fields. With SRI, farmers take tiny seedlings, less than 2 weeks old, and plant them into unflooded fields at wide spacing and then use simple tools to remove weeds that aerate the soil. Plants are not kept submerged in water. Fields are periodically irrigated and then dried out. Organic fertilizers replace chemical fertilizers and make pesticides unnecessary.
These alternative methods have dramatic impacts: Farmers can increase yields from their traditional varieties by 50-100%, using 25-50% less water and 80-90% less seed, with less drudgery, and few or no purchased agrichemical inputs. Nearly a third of the world's population depends upon rice for their subsistence and livelihoods, and rice production has to increase by 30-40% percent over the next 25 years. With diminishing land and water, SRI represents a significant innovation to meet these needs.

SRI Rice – Better for You, Better for the Planet
When you buy SRI-grown rice you are not only getting some of the best tasting and healthiest rice in the world, you are also helping to:
Improve local and global food security
Promote healthier people and a healthier environment
Empower small farmers and raise incomes
Alleviate poverty
Reduce water demands, leaving more water for human use and natural ecosystems
Address climate change challenges
Reduce pressure on fragile ecosystems and wildlife habitats

They were not selling any SRI rice products, but they were selling other varieties that Mom has had her eyes on for quite some time. Mom purchase three different varieties: Bhutanese Red Rice, Forbidden Rice, and Jade Pearl Rice. I don't eat rice, but Mom loves it and she is really excited to try them all really soon.

Mom got samples of Pangea Organics soap, Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Lotion, and Glee Gum. All in all, Mom had a good time, but was happy to leave due to the crowds. I was also happy for Mom to leave so that she could come home, because I miss her. Too bad for me that I was asleep when Mom got home and shortly after she walked in the door, Mom fell into bed to get some sleep. All that greening made Mom really tired. Maybe she won't have any energy today and she will stay home with me instead of going to a craft fair. I can only hope.

Exciting News From Sun Chips

A lot of things make Mom crazy. It's true. She has a hard time buying food items that contain too much packaging because she knows that the packaging will end up in a landfill forever. Even if some packaging can be recycled she still feels guilty buying a product because so much energy was used to create the packaging. When I told Mom about the steps that they Sun Chips people were taking to create more responsible packaging, she kissed me all over!

The people at Sun Chips realized that they had to address the impact their packaging has on the Earth. Packaging accounts for most of the waste thrown away in everyone's garbage. This packaging goes from your garbage to the landfill, where it will never decompose. Mom is always telling me that we need enzymes that can break down all the packaging, but that enzymes haven't yet evolved to break down the sophisticated packaging we have created. Huh? It all seems very complicated to me because I am not a scientist, but the basic idea is that packaging lives forever. And that's a problem.

Knowing that they had to change their ways, the people at Sun Chips turned to nature. The result is that 33% of every 10.5 oz bag is made with renewable plant based materials. Yeah! Mom can feel less guilty if she buys them. I don't eat Sun Chips because they don't have a meat flavored chip. I don't know why they don't because I think it would be a big seller. Maybe I will e-mail them with my idea later today.

33% is good, but next year Sun Chips will introduce the first fully compostable chip bag of its kind. The bags will fully decompose in about 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin. Wow! That is so cutting edge!

Since Frito Lay makes Sun Chips, hopefully they will introduce compostable chip bags for their other chip products. Something else that you should know about they way Sun Chips does business is that they added solar energy to their plant in Modesto, Calif. The energy that isn’t used to produce its 145,000 bags of whole grain chips a day is offset by energy credits under a companywide program instituted by parent company PepsiCo. They are paving the green way for others to follow. Check out this short video of the compostable bag and remember that we can all make changes in our lives to eliminate waste, so please do your part.

Save Those Produce Stickers!

Don't you just hate throwing the stickers from produce into the garbage? The thought of more trash going to the landfill makes Mom crazy, which in turn makes me crazy. Then I found a guy that Mom could send the stickers to so that she can sleep peacefully at night.

Barry "Wildman" Synder uses the stickers to make mosaic artwork at his Erie, Colorado home. What a brillant idea! This guys deserves an award. Some people are just so creative.

According to his website, Barry started the S.O.S. - Save Our Stickers - Foundation to provide a new home and meaningful purpose for produce stickers. But where does he get all the stickers from? Does he just sit around eating produce all day long? Of course not. He gets them from people just like you and pugs like me. More importantly, he depends on us to keep his artwork alive.

So how can you help? Just peel the stickers from your produce and place them sticky side down on a piece of notepaper (paper only, no plastic). Once you have enough saved up to make it worthwhile to send, mail them to:

Barry “Wildman” Snyder
Stickerman Produce Art
POB 301
Erie CO 80516

Your stickers will be turned into a beautiful piece of artwork like this. Mom really likes this piece. Too bad Mother's Day just past (darn!) and her birthday is next year (shucks) or I would get it for her. Maybe this would make a good anniversary gift (next month).

Most of Barry's pieces cost between $25 - $265. This is a great way to upcycle something that would otherwise end up in a landfill. For additional information on Barry and his artwork, check out his website at http://stickermanproduceart.wordpress.com/.

In case you were wondering about those little numbers on the stickers, the most important digit is the first one.

• Numbers beginning with a 3 or 4 denote conventionally grown, non-GMO produce. This means the produce has been grown with chemical pesticides and fertilizers, but is not genetically modified.
• Numbers beginning with an 8 denotes genetically modified (GMO) produce.
• Numbers beginning with a 9 denotes organic produce.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

I'm the birthday boy, boy!

Today is my birthday - yahoo! I am 12 years old today. Put on your party hats, grab some treats, and take a stroll down memory lane with me as I celebrate my special day. Yipee!

Mom likes to tell me that I was the cutest pug baby ever, but that's just Mom being Mom. You can judge for yourself, but I have to admit that I was (an am still) a cutie. This is me when I was just ten weeks old. I was a little guy believe it or not. This is my first day home (my gotcha day) and I am checking out the backyard and my bowl. This cool bowl changed colors depending on the heat of the liquid inside, but I eventually chewed it, so no more bowl. Mom and Dad always put ice cubes in it to keep me cool, but I was already cool!

Look how little I was! Mom said it seems like just yesterday and not twelve years ago that I fit into the palm of her hand. Ahhh, isn't that sweet? We didn't have a fenced yard at the old house, so my leash was hooked up to a stake in the backyard. I didn't have much freedom, but I loved it there.

I told Mom that she could trust me not to run away if I was unhooked from my stake, but she wouldn't do it. She was afraid that I would run like a crazy man into the street and get smashed by a car. Yikes! I stayed hooked on my stake because I didn't was to get smashed.

This was one of my first days home with Mom and Dad and you can see that I was really spoiled. My cage (house) is on the left and was placed just perfectly in the doorway to block me from going into the dining room. Mom and Dad were very sneaky back then and they really didn't trust me. I am laying on one of my favorite blankies. I had so many when I was a little guy and I would play tug-o-war with them, drag them around the house, and then fall to sleep all wrapped up on them.

This action shot is from that same first week and as you can see I loved to motor around the house. I was very fast and I would let Mom and Dad chase me around the house for fun. Look at my cute pug mug!I loved my new parents and I told them so as often as I could. I wasn't much of a barker, but I've always loved to give kisses, to cuddle, and to smile. A face only Mom could love!

This was my first birthday and look what Mom and Dad bought me! This bone was bigger than me, but I loved it. I chewed it for a while, but never even made a dent in it. I have always loved bones that I can hold between my paws while eating and this bone was way too big for that. I used to try to drag it around the house, but I eventually gave it to my good buddy Cody and he chewed it down to nothing.
I used to love to sit like "a little boy" and people were constantly sitting me on their laps like that. This is me with my Dad's good buddy Rock and you can see that I do look like a real baby boy on his lap. I loved this chair too and used to spin around on it all the time.

This was my version of a cloud bed, kind of like the one that Salinger has. I used to snuggle inside it and just peek my little pug out so that I could see what was going on. I was so good at hiding that Mom and Dad couldn't find me.

I used to jump a lot when I was a little guy which probably explains all my aches and pains now. I loved to jump on the bed and this picture shows me on the bed looking down at something. Mom says that I look really skinny in this picture. Notice the curly tail - it wasn't yet broken.Mostly I loved to just hang out on the furniture with Mom and Dad. I have always been a people pug, like most pugs, so wherever my peeps go, I go.

For some reason, I have baby pictures, but no mid age pictures. Hmmm. I wonder what happened. I think that maybe Mom and Dad got busy with life and just didn't take that many pictures of me.

This is me (and Dad) on Halloween when I was about four years old. I am already graying, much to my dismay. Mom said that I looked very cute as a devil. I used to run to the door when the trick-or-treaters rang the bell and I would help Mom give them candy. All the little girls would ooh and ahh over me and I loved it.

I do not like anything on my head, so I would constantly take the horns off. I know I don't look like a devil without my horns, but they just made me crazy!

I am a baby in this picture - I think it's my first Easter. Mom and Dad took me to the mall to have professional pictures taken and I can't believe that I agreed to sit in an Easter basket. I also don't have my collar on, so my neck looks big. I felt so naked, but I went along with it because it made Mom and Dad happy. This picture sits in the family room and everyone that comes over tells me how much they like it.

Here I am in a Christmas picture with my good buddies in a silly Santa sleigh. Cody is sitting in front of the sleigh, his cousin T-Bone is in the sleigh with me, and Cody's brother Rudy is standing at the front of the sleigh drooling as usual. Mom and Sandy (Cody and Rudy's mom) took all of us to the mall to have this picture taken. They did it as a gift to our dads and our dads loved it.

This last picture was my Christmas gift to Dad a few years ago and it sits in his office. Mom loves the way the canvas turned out and said that I look very sly in the picture - I think that is a compliment. The canvas is definitely an attention grabber and everyone loves to look at it.

I wish that I could tell you that I had lots of exciting plans for today, but Dad is out of town and Mom has a final exam this afternoon. I'm sure that I will be doing something later today, but for now it is a surprise. I haven't seen any presents yet and am dying to know what Mom and Dad got me.

Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with me on my birthday!

GreenPrint

Mom is loving this new product. You have to check it out. It will help you save trees, money, CO2, toner, time, energy, and more. Whew! What a list of things to save by using one little product. This is one of those things that is not too good to be true.

So what is GreenPrint and how does it work? GreenPrint is a product that you can download here that eliminates wasteful pages in any printout automatically. Mom is always telling me how much paper is wasted when you try to print directions from Mapquest, so she doesn't print them. Not printing them has nothing to do with the fact that she sometimes gets lost, but if there were a way to print the directions without the map and banner ads, she would definitely do it.

GreenPrint works by analyzing each page of every document that is sent to your printer. It looks for typical waste characteristics like a last page with just a URL, banner ad, logo, or copyright. This is stuff that you don't need printed. By eliminating this stuff, you can print only what you need, thus saving trees, money, CO2 - you get the picture. It also features a PDF writer, a print preview called GreenView, and a reporting feature that keeps track of the number of pages and amount of waste you have saved.

According to the GreenPrint website:

• If all US households with a computer used GreenPrint, over $6 billion would be saved each year.
• If all new computers used GreenPrint, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by over 117 million tons (like taking 23 million cars off the road for a year).
• If all new computers sold in 2006 used GreenPrint, over 36 million trees would be saved every year.

Using GreenPrint is a no-brainer. Did I tell what the best part is? GreenPrint is free! Yeah! Just download and start printing responsibly. Do your part to help Mother Earth and as always, spread the word. We are all in this together.

To Moms Everywhere!

Today is your day! A day just for you! A special day that honors all that you are and all that you do for us.

In honor of Mother's Day, I am spending the whole day by Mom's side. I will not leave her alone for one second. I will be her shadow and at her beck and call. Yep, it's hard work but someone has to do it.

Mom and Dad do not have their moms anymore, so today is all about my mom. Dad decided to celebrate the day by golfing, so we are enjoying some alone time, just Mom, me, the laundry, the dirty dishes, and the vacuuming.

Mom takes really good care of me. She does the little things too, like making sure that I am comfortable in bed even if she isn't. That's right, she sacrifices her sleep for me and for that I love her.

Mom is also a really good mom to her sea turtle mommas and babies. Mom makes sure that the mommas have a safe place to nest when they come to Wassaw Island. She helps them dig a nest if they need assistance, she makes sure that their precious eggs get moved to a safe location if needed, and she keeps the raccoons away. When the babies hatch, Mom helps them to the ocean and says a little prayer for them so that they remain safe as they grow and thrive.

There is a show on PBS tonight called Voyage of the Lonely Turtle. It is about a loggerhead sea turtle named Adelita whose quest to be a mother is documented as she makes the longest migration known in the animal kingdom. She encounters sharks, jellyfish, and man-made death traps along her journey back to the beach where she was hatched over twenty years ago. Her instincts push her through all the challenges as faces as she crosses the Pacific Ocean, back home to become a mother.

Adelita's story is an inspiration to everyone who watches it and it has even more meaning today, as we celebrate all the mothers in the world. I blogged about Adelita in February, so if you didn't catch that post, please check it out here. Adelita's journey airs tonight on your local PBS station at 7:00 pm CDT and here is a quick video preview for you to watch.

PetAirways!

I really thought I had a great plan to go to Emmitt's house when I stormed out of the house last night, but as luck would have it, my plans did not pan out. Foiled again. Mom, as usual, won.

My plan was to race to the airport and buy a ticket aboard PetAirways. This new airline is a pet-only airline dedicated to pet-friendly travel. No cargo area for me. Nope. I will be chilling in the main cabin. With no people on board, besides the pet attendants, it is the perfect way for pets to travel. They fly out of an airport just a few towns over and their website said that they fly to Denver - perfect!I have never been on an airplane before, but I am not afraid to fly like Mom. I don't know how she ever goes anywhere because everywhere she wants to go she has to fly. This plane looked pretty spiffy to me and the inside cabin looked right up my alley. Mom would say that it is the "I think I can" airplane because it has propellers instead of jet engines. Remind her to tell you about the time she had to get on an "I think I can" plane after it landed on the beach in a third world country. Priceless!

What I failed to check on their website in my mad rush to get the heck out of Dodge, was that they don't start flying until July. July? I need to go to Denver now! The party will be over by July! The meatloaf will be gone! I will die of starvation!

There was nothing I could do except go back home, with my tail between my legs, and act like nothing had happened. I would act like I had just taken a really long walk, by myself, in the rain. Maybe Mom won't even notice that I have been gone so long. Maybe she's already in bed. Maybe she is on petfinder.org looking for a new pug. Oh, no! What have I done?

I raced home and found Mom crying hysterically. She almost fainted when she saw me sulk back through the door, all wet and dirty, shivering from the cold. "Stubby! My baby boy! I'm so glad you're back home safe and sound. Don't ever leave like that again!" Mom shrieked. She picked me up and hugged me so tight that I think she rung all the water out of me. She could not stop crying.

Dad walked in the room and rescued me and even he had tears in his eyes. He told me that Mom had called the police, the FBI, the CIA, and Scotland Yard after I left. She was certain that someone had snuck inside the house and stolen me because I would never run away, especially in the rain. After he dried me off and calmed Mom down, we all climbed into bed and fell soundly asleep.

Mom was still so upset this morning that she told me that I didn't have to fast anymore. Sir Richard could stand to lose a few pounds, so let him do it she said. Yeah! I can eat again! As Mom poured that last bits of food into my bowl I wondered if she planned on taking me to Popeye's tonight or if she had something else planned. Her and Dad left after lunch to do some shopping, so I decided to catch up on my sleep.

When Mom and Dad got home, I ran to the door to greet them, like the good pug I am. Mom had a huge smile on her face and I knew that something was up. She told me to come into the garage for a minute because she wanted to show me something. I hope she didn't buy a new car or something dumb like that because I wasn't interested in another car that I wasn't allowed to ride in.

I walked down the steps and turned my head toward where she was standing and that's when I saw it. My food! My Bil Jac was in the house! Yippee! I did my little pug dance and could not stop smiling as I danced around the wonderful 30 pound bag of yumminess.

I hope that Emmitt understands why I couldn't make it to the party. Maybe he could ship me some meatloaf and we could Skype, so it would be just like having me at the party.

Poor Stubby!

As I was eating dinner tonight, Mom informed me that I am almost out of dog food. What? Almost out? Run to the store - quick! Get more food now! I told Mom that if I run out of food, she will have to make me scrambled eggs for breakfast and drive me to Popeye's every day for chicken. That's just how I roll.

As you can see, the food in the container is all that I have left. I'm sure this will not last the weekend, so unless Mom jumps in the car right now and drives to PetSmart, I am doomed. You do not want a hungry Stubby in the house, trust me. I get very grumpy when I am hungry and I have been known to - well I cannot tell you what I have done in the past because it's not pretty. Just trust me on this one.

I was so mad when I finished eating, that I turned my cute butt toward Mom, the camera, and what's left of my food, and ran to find Dad. He is very logical and has been known to talk some sense into Mom. I pleaded with him to get Mom to take the fastest car available and race to the store right away. This is an emergency!

Of course, there was no talking any sense into Mom today. She kept saying how tired she was and that she had a headache. She had a long day at the zoo today and just didn't feel like going anywhere tonight. I am going to starve, woman!

Since Mom wasn't listening to me or Dad, I decided to go into the family room and ignore her. The cold shoulder was just what she deserved along with some very loud barking. She tried to play with me, but I grabbed my Buddy Dog and played with him instead. I even made her get up off the sofa and let me out and then back in the house several times, just to make her mad. I think all this 'Mom abuse' worked just a little too good because not only is she not going to buy me any food tonight, but she connconted a scheme to get back at me once and for all. Yikes!



You may or may not of heard that Mia Farrow has been on a hunger strike for the past twelve days to raise awareness for the horrible crisis unfolding in Darfur with the removal of 13 international aid agencies. She is fasting to ask world leaders to take immediate action and demand that international aid is restored. Hundreds of people around the world have joined her in fasting, in a show of solidarity.

The fast had been going well for Mia until today. Mia has been instructed by her doctor to stop fasting immediately, due to serious health concerns. The people of Darfur are starving, or as the website Darfur Fast for Life says, they are fasting without option. These people do not have food and now that the government has removed 13 international aid agencies, it does not look like they will have food anytime soon.

Now that Mia can no longer continue her fast, Sir Richard Branson has stepped in to take over the fast for her. Mom loves Sir Richard, so to save him from serious health concerns, she has decided that I will continue Mia Farrow's fast. What? Me, fast?

Mom tried to put a positive spin on the fast, like only she can do, telling me that fasting would be good for me because I would lose a few pounds. This will make the doctor happy and will make me feel better. Are you kidding me?

It's not that I am not sensitive to the people in Darfur and their situation, but I cannot fast. I can send them some food (if I can find some) or send them a check (if I can write one), but fast I cannot do. What am I going to do? Someone save me!

Okay, Stubby, snap out of it and figure it out! Think! Just then the wheels in my cute head started spinning, all the neurons firing simultaneously, and it was at that moment when the light bulb went off over my head. Eureka! The plan of all plans, the most foolproof plan, the plan that Mom cannot ruin. I'm going to Partypalooza!

I told Emmitt I was coming, but I have been so busy working for slave driver Mom, that I haven't been able to get away this week. I am done working for the man, so I am heading to Colorado where there is plenty of food! I will be leaving tonight (asap) and I will be following Tweedles marshmallow trail all the way to Emmitt's house. Here I am saying goodbye to Dad before I head out. I didn't say goodbye to Mom, but Dad told her that I was so mad that I may not come back.

I know that Emmitt has a computer and a super fast Internet connection at his house, so if I have time between eating helping after helping of meatloaf, I will update my blog. While I am traveling tomorrow, please remember to Stamp Out Hunger by participating in the USPS food drive. Check out all the details here. My girlfriend Pearl has already collected some food to give to her mailman and I am hoping all my other blogging pals will collect some too.

Project Squirrel

Mom is very excited about this new venture. She is always looking to conduct scientific research and this time I get to help her out.

We are going to be squirrel monitors. Believe it or not, squirrels can tell us a lot about our local environment and how it is changing. But how will we know about squirrels unless people gather data about them? That's where we come in.

We will be observing squirrels everywhere we go. If I see a squirrel in the yard, I will tell Mom so that she can record the observation. This should be pretty easy to do because we have a squirrel who loves to steal food from one of our bird feeders. He hangs upside down on the feeder and when Mom sees him she sends me out in the yard to scare him off. Everytime this happens, we will record an observation.

If I am out on my walk and I see a squirrel, then that observation will also get recorded. If Mom is at the zoo and she sees a squirrel (or 2 or 3), she will record the observation. We will have our eyes peeled to the landscape looking for squirrels! The idea is to record observations everywhere you see squirrels because these observations help scientists better understand the ecology of our neighborhoods.

The observations are easy to record online. There is a form that Mom will fill out that asks for the date, time, and zip code of the observation. The form also asks how many squirrels you observed along with what type. Fox squirrels and grey squirrels are two of the most familiar species in our area and they are pretty easy to identify from one another.

The form asks for the setting of the squirrel observation - a house, apartment building, vacant lot, etc. Squirrels are everywhere! You are also asked if there were specific trees at the site of the observation. Mom tells me that areas that have lots of big trees typically have lots of squirrels. We do not have any big trees in our yard, but there are lots of big trees just down the block. I see the squirrel nests way up in the tops of the big trees when I crane my head all the way back.

We will also record if the squirrels we observed regularly obtain food from different sources, with one of the sources being birdfeeders. Do you think this is a bad thing that squirrels eat bird food? Are they really so hungry that they steal food from the birds or do they just do it to get on Mom's nerves?

I love the next question on the form - how abundant are dogs and cats at the observation site? I am the only dog in the yard, so dogs are not abundant there, but in places like a park where everyone walks their dog, dogs would be abundant.

You can be a squirrel monitor no matter where you live in the U.S. as long as you see squirrels. The researchers appreciate all the observations they can get, but they would like you to make at least four observations per site per year. They also want to know if you are in an area where it seems like there should be squirrels but there aren't.

Project Squirrel started in 1997 and since then they have received over 1,000 observations, primarily in the Chicagoland area. They have learned a lot about squirrels from the observations they have received like the fact that they found more fox and fewer gray squirrels than expected in areas with single-family homes, and that gray squirrels were found more often than expected in association with oaks and pines, whereas fox squirrels were associated with elms and maples. This is neat stuff!

Okay, I'm off to take my morning walk with Dad and to look for squirrels. I am so excited to be collecting actual scientific data that I finally understand how Mom feels. I am a pug scientist! Maybe Mom will get me a little lab coat like the one she wears so that I can look real official.

For more information on becoming a squirrel monitor, please check out http://www.projectsquirrel.org/. Even if you don't plan on being a squirrel monitor, there are some cool squirrel photos and interesting findings on the website. I might even submit a picture so that you can see my squirrels. You just never know what I am going to do next.

Please Click to Give

This is the easiest thing you will do all day! If a pug can do it, then anyone can do it!

My aunt Gayle sent Mom an e-mail this morning about The Animal Rescue Site. It seems like they are having trouble getting enough people to click a button on their site that when clicked, food gets donated to abused and neglected animals. Their corporate sponsors and advertisers use the number of daily visit to donate the food in exchange for advertising. The Animal Rescue Site needs to meet a daily quota and all of us can help.

Simply click here or click on the big purple button to go to The Animal Rescue Site. Click on the big purple button like the one you see above and you will be doing your part to feed animals in need. After you click the button, you will receive a nice little thank you that tells you that your click has been counted and that today you have given the equivalent of .6 bowls of food to rescued animals - yeah! Ads will be displayed from the sponsors of The Animal Rescue Site and 100% of the money from these advertisers goes to their charity partners who fund programs to provide food and care for rescued animals.

You can even sign up to receive a daily reminder e-mail from The Animal Rescue Site so that you can click every day to help animals. When you do this, they will even give three extra bowls of food to the animals and send you a cool purple paw pin.

These people at The Animal Rescue Site are really smart because they use the power of the Internet to provide food for animals. According to their site, there are 27 million unwanted animals given to shelters and 10 million are put to death because they are abandoned and unwanted every year in the U.S. Yikes! This makes me so sad because I have a nice place to live, food whenever I want it, and people who love and take care of me. Not all animals are this fortunate, so please click to give them a chance. Click the button every day and spread the word to everyone you know.

I'm Famous!

I was just hanging out on my surfboard in Dad's office when Mom walked in and told me that I was famous. Duh Mom! Are you just figuring this out? I've been famous for years. Get with the program!

Mom whipped out a piece of paper, put it next to my head, and quickly snapped a picture. I look a little miffed in the picture because I was completely in the dark - I had no idea what was going on. I was just about to take a quick little nap when Mom walked in, but after she showed me the paper and told me all about it, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep.

Mom wrote an article about my blog for The Writer's Block, the newsletter of the College of Lake County Writing Center. Mom works as a tutor at the Writing Center and is always telling the tutors about my blog. Some of them look at her like she has lost her mind when she tells them I blog. Some people just ignore her. But some people actually think it's great that I do something with my time other than my daily security duties, eat, and sleep (not necessarily in that order).

When Mom's boss Kim asked her if she would like to write an article for the newsletter, Mom of course said yes, but then asked what she should write about. Mom is full of ideas but most of them are not about writing. Then Kim suggested that she write about my blog. Kim visits my blog all the time and is always telling Mom how much she loves it. Mom wondered who would want to read about my blog, but Kim assured her that she could write a great article about it and viola - here it is!
Who is that good-looking guy on the front page? The front page! Oh yes, that's me, looking very cute indeed. The newsletter is distributed electronically to the entire staff at the college, with hardcopies available at the Writing Center, so hopefully lots of people will read the newsletter and then stop by my blog to say hi.

Mom kept the article a secret from me because she wanted it to be a surprise. It's kind of like a pre-birthday gift and I couldn't be happier!

Red Wolf Pups Released into the Wild Yesterday

Dateline Chicago. Happenings at the zoo. This is big news. This news doesn't happen every day. This news has never happened in Chicago before. This news will make you happy!

On April 24, six critically endangered red wolf pups were born at Lincoln Park Zoo. This is the second litter for the pair that have been together since 2006. Last year's litter were sent to zoos earlier this year where they will continue to serve as ambassadors for their species.

Yesterday, four of the new pups began their journey to North Carolina where they will be released into the wild as part of the Red Wolf Recovery Program. The pups will be fostered by wild adult wolves after being inserted into the dens of the adult wolves who will serve as foster parents. These are the first pups from Lincoln Park Zoo to be released into the wild.

Red wolves were once very common throughout the southeastern U.S. but in the 1960s their populations were decimated due to intensive predator control programs and loss of habitat. In 1973 they were declared endangered and efforts were made to round up as many wild red wolves as possible. Only 17 wolves were captured, which is a really small population. Of these 17, 14 became founders of a successful managed-breeding program. In 1980, because of their low numbers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the red wolf extinct in the wild.

Fast forward to 1987. Due to the successful breeding of the founder wolves, a restoration program on the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge in northeastern North Carolina was created. During the 22 years since then, the experimental population area has expanded to include three national wildlife refuges, Department of Defense and state-owned lands and private property, totaling 1.7 million acres.

The red wolf fostering strategy of placing red wolf pups born via a managed breeding program into wild dens has been very successful over the past decade. According to Arthur Beyer, red wolf field coordinator for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, "Wild mothers have readily accepted the pups as long as the pups are placed in the den when they are this young. The field team has identified two or three denning pairs where Lincoln Park Zoo pups are an ideal fit." Yeah!

The pups were pulled from their zoo den earlier yesterday morning and examined by zoo vets before embarking on their journey to North Carolina. It was unknown at the time whether the pups will be placed in a single den, or split among a couple different wild dens. One thing is for certain - once they are placed with their dens, they will left alone with their foster mothers and no one will check on them for a year. Yikes! A whole year? This strategy has worked so well in the past because the pups will be placed with mothers who have raised pups in previous year.

Mom thinks the pups are very cute, but not as cute as pug puppies. She is very excited about the pups being part of the recovery program and she hopes that she can visit them in the wild one day soon. Zoo visitors love seeing the wolves and when they learn about the wolves near demise, they are encouraged and hopeful for a comeback. Mom love pointing out the wolves, as they run around their nearly 10,000 ft habitat, to visitors. They are located in the Pritzer Family Childrens Zoo, whose theme is At Home in the Woods. Walking through the exhibit is like walking through the woods, so the animals found their are animals that are or were once in this area. There are river otters, beavers, black bears, kestrels, screech owls, fox snakes, walking sticks, box turtles, Blanding's turtles, and more. It is a very special place in the zoo, which sits in the middle of the city. You almost forget that you are in the city as you get wrapped up in the natural sites and sounds of the woods.

As for me, I never get to go to the zoo or to wildlife refuges. I just live vicariously through Mom.

The Red Wolf Recovery Program is a cooperative conservation effort between the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Red Wolf Species Survival Plan and the United States Fish & Wildlife Service. For more information on the program, check out http://www.fws.gov/redwolf/.

Addicted To Plastic

Mom and I watched this film today and we both highly recommend it. It offers an insight into the world of plastic, from it's early days to present, and it showcases our obsession with plastic.

Addicted To Plastic is a full length documentary about the problems with plastic and solutions to these problems. The filmmaker, Ian Connacher, narrates his journey to 12 countries on 5 continents, searching for answers to the ever growing problem with what has become the world's obsession.

The film starts with Ian's journey to the North Pacific Gyre, a floating city of plastic twice the size of the state of Texas. Called the largest landfill in the world, this plastic city contains debris from around the globe and is a hazard to everyone on Earth. Ian is looking for answers while on a ship traveling through the gyre and he gets some as he retrieves piece after piece of plastic floating on the surface of seemingly pristine water. This may seem shocking to some as they watch this film, but this is the reality we are faced with. I think this segment was a perfect way to begin the film because this is not typically what people think about when they think about plastic.

Detailing the path of plastic over the last 100 years, the film digs in deep with interviews from experts in the fields of marine research, the plastics industry, recycling, environmentalism, and more. These people offer solutions to what to do with all the plastic we throw away every day. Ian shows us some great and cutting edge solutions that will give hope to you as you watch this film, but ultimately, education is the key to dealing with this issues.

I don't want to give away too much of the film because I want you to see it, learn from it, take action, and spread the word. I'm hoping that by watching this short trailer for the film, you will be inspired to watch the entire film. There is so much knowledge to be gained from the film's 1 1/2 hour viewing time, that you will never think about plastic the same way again. That, I believe, is the real message of the film. To raise awareness and to get people thinking about the issues. We can change the future, but we all need to do our part.