Pakistan, The Animals

I have wanted to post the following information for some time, but something or other has frequently intervened. Here, finally, is the post about something I consider important and hope that there will be some people who can help the animals, as well as the people, of Pakistan. (I have had the information available on my sidebar for a couple of weeks now, but I don't know how many people read sidebars.) It is a plea from the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

Dear Friend,

Thousands of starving animals affected by severe flooding in Pakistan need your help!

Hundreds of thousands of animals have already drowned due to tragic flooding in Pakistan that claimed 1,400 human lives and affected more than 15 million people. The surviving animals are at severe risk and in desperate need of food and veterinary care.

Please help feed Pakistan's starving animals.

People in Pakistan are struggling to keep their animals alive. Floodwaters are still not receding and more rain is falling on the destroyed crops, which is leaving a massive shortage of animal food.

WSPA is partnering with the Vets Care Club, a group of veterinary students and staff from the University of Veterinary and Animal Science in Lahore, to provide feed to cows, buffalos, goats and sheep in the Layyah District, Punjab. This region has 252 farmers with 4,458 animals.

Your gift now will be used to buy nutritionally-balanced feed for animals who will most likely otherwise starve as their owners cannot afford to buy them food.

A small gift can go a long way to stopping the suffering of animals.

$30 can feed a buffalo or cow for a week
$10 can feed two goats or sheep for a week

The flooding is now covering one-fifth of the country, including its agricultural heartland. Several villages have been severely affected, many completely demolished.

WSPA's 30-year history treating animals in disasters has shown that animals are crucial to the recovery of the region. Agriculture, including livestock, is the livelihood mainstay of nearly 90% of the flood-affected community in Pakistan's rural areas.

Please send your gift now so we can respond to this current crisis and to other disasters around the world.

Thank you for reaching out to animals in need.
Sincerely,

Silia Smith
Interim Executive Director,
WSPA USA

P.S . These animals are so important to the people of Pakistan. Your gift will not only help the animals, it will help their whole community recover too. Please give as generously as you can.

By the way, thanks to those of you who donated to Wajeeha's journey with her classmates to help her countrymen. She has sent me an update on Face Book, which I will try to share some time next week.

It's Covered: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear

i've got a big review of yesterday's DC stop for the Rock the Bells tour coming soon, but what's the point of co-owning a blog if you can't take time out to wish The Missus a happy second wedding anniversary? A lot of people lost money on that bet, i tell you what.

In honor of two years of wedded bliss, a quick It's Covered on the Randy Newman classic, "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear." The Missus and i have a running joke about getting eaten by bears, which probably isn't that funny if you were friends with this guy, but it's a laugh riot to us regardless. You go hang out in Alaska meeting your in-laws, and tell me the thought doesn't cross your mind. Then have your father-to-be draw a pistol on what turns out to be a leafy stump swaying in the breeze. It's a knee slapper, i tell you what.

While Newman penned it, it was first performed by Harpers Bizarre and, with the change of an article, was made classic overseas by Alan Price (though if you're from the States and about my age, you might credit its true international success to Scooter, Rowlf and Fozzie).

i'll let you decide for yourself.

mp3: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Randy Newman from Sail Away)

mp3: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Harpers Bizarre from The Platinum Collection)

mp3: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Harry Nilsson from Harry)

mp3: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Okkervil River from Golden Opportunities mixtape)

mp3: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (The Muppets from The Muppet Show - The 25th Anniversary Collection)

mp3: Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear (Alan Price from The Best Of)

mp3: Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear (The Animals from Perform Price)

(Ed. Note: Today's Blog-on-Blog love gets you sticky from She'll Grow Back, who longtime readers will remember inspired this column in the first place, thereby giving you the correct answer to the upcoming LET version of Trivial Pursuit.)

Kill Only When You Are Hungry

Here is another of the goodies that my sister sends to me from the Internet:

The law of the wild says kill only when you are hungry!!!

Photographer Michel Denis-Huot, who captured these amazing pictures on safari in Kenya 's Masai Mara in October last year, said he was astounded by what he saw:
"These three cheetah brothers have been living together since they left their mother at about 18 months old," he said. "On the morning we saw them, they seemed not to be hungry, walking quickly but stopping sometimes to play together. At one point, they met a group of impala who ran away. But one youngster was not quick enough and the brothers caught it easily".

These extraordinary scenes followed.