Sparrow in the hands of Zoe

I was driving back home from picking up dinner this afternoon, going down a busy street (Guadalupe) during rush hour, with Zoe and Paige in the back. I was at a stoplight and I saw a small bird rolling around on the road, flapping around. The light turned green and cars started going, the bird rolled right in front of my car. I put on my hazards, got out and picked up the young sparrow in my right hand. I got back in the car and drove with my left hand. The bird was in shock for about 5 minutes. I called Nikki and asked her to meet me in front of the house with a cat carrier so we could put the sparrow in it. As I was coming down the street I noticed the sparrows look changed, it closed its beak, and her eyes became more alert and she started looking around. I arrived home and got out of the car. We all sat in the front yard and looked at the sparrow in my hand. Zoe asked to hold her so I gently placed the sparrow in her hands. I asked Nikki where the camera was. Zoe held the sparrow for about a minute when all of the sudden the sparrow flew off quickly into the sky. Nikki and I let out a visceral "Yay!" Zoe started to cry. We asked her what was wrong, she said "I wanted to keep her". We explained how it was a very good thing that the sparrow was ok and able to be free again. It took her a little bit but she understood. Now she is happy that she was able to hold a wild bird in her hand and watch it take off.

On a side note, I think people dont stop in traffic sometimes if they see and injured animal because they feel other people will get mad because they are being inconvenienced by having to pause for a minute. When I got out of the car and was coming back with the bird in my hand I glanced at the driver behind me. He was a middle aged bearded man, he looked at me and nodded with approval. I am very happy I stopped.

Sophie and Miro

Miro watching doves have breakfast on Christmas Morning

In good company

Being a vegetarian is not new. A lot of people in history practiced vegetarianism at one time or another in their lives. Some just for a while, some stayed with it their whole lives.

In addition to some of our good friends who are veggies, like Angie and James, Catherine-Eugene and family, Kara-Eliot and family, Giana-Todd and family, Annalisa and family, Bobby and family (who is vegan), and Im sure Ive missed a few...here is just some of the famous people who at one time or another were vegetarians (for a longer list go here):

Leonardo da Vinci, artist and inventor

Thomas Edison, inventor

Albert Einstein, physicist

Ben Franklin, American statesman, philosopher and scientist

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian independence leader

Jerry Garcia, musician, member of Grateful Dead

Bob Marley, musician

Sir Isaac Newton, physicist

Plato, philosopher

Pythagoras, Greek philosopher

Socrates, Greek philosopher

Dr. Spock, author and pediatrician

Henry David Thoreau, writer

Leo Tolstoy, author

Vincent Van Gogh, painter

Voltaire, French writer

HG Wells, author

Steve Jobs - CEO of Apple

John Coltrane - jazz musician

Paul McCartney of The Beatles

Saint Francis of Assisi - patron saint of animals

and these are possible based on quotes about vegetarianism:

Charles Darwin, author and scientist

Mark Twain - author

Abraham Lincoln - US president

Vegetarian

Today is our 10 years anniversary of being a vegetarian. The last time I ate any animal was at my mom's house on Thanksgiving in 1999. I stopped cold turkey (I know, bad joke) the day after that.

I remember getting lots of questions such as, "Dont you miss eating meat?" "You don't even eat fish?" and so on (the answer to both of those is no by the way). I would always love to answer any questions anyone had but have always made it a point not to be a missionary about it. The easiest answer I could give would simply be, "I don't eat anything you have to kill".

I can say it was a great decision for Nikki and I. I feel healthier and cleaner inside than I ever did eating meat. Now we have 2 girls who we are raising as vegetarians and this gives them extra thought to what they are eating, teaching them compassion and empathy in the process.

So happy anniversary and congratulations to Nikki and myself, 10 years meat free!

Sophie and Silly Squirrel

Sophie checking out Silly Squirrel (named by Zoe) having some lunch from the bird feeder.

Zoe and a Red-Tailed Hawk

This is a photo from the Nature Center here in Austin about 6 months ago. This red-tailed hawk was very loud when she made her calls. It was a great experience to see one that close.

Bugs, sand and other yummy stuff

Nikki, Zoe and Paige went to Toy -Joy here in Austin last week to get some vegan ice-cream. Zoe wanted sprinkles and the lady behind the counter warned that they are not vegan or vegetarian.

Nikki: "How can sprinkles not be vegetarian?"

Lady behind counter: “The shiny coating is called shellac, which is made of bugs, and the red ones get their coloring from another type of smashed up bug".

Yummy!

http://webecoist.com/2009/05/08/10-weird-and-gross-ingredients-in-processed-food/

Wood Duck

The wood duck is one of the birds on my "really want to see them in person" list, and Zoe and I fed bread to about 3 couples this past week! We came across them at Zilker Park in the river (I know everyone in Austin says thats a lake, but until I see unrefutable proof thats a lake Im calling it a river :)

Ft Worth Zoo

We went to the Ft Worth Zoo this morning. Its a pretty good zoo, it has flora environments for the animals and things for them to do. Its not one of those concrete/penitentiary/depressing style zoos like the Dallas Zoo is.

The main reason for going was for Zoe to see elephants. She wanted to get in the enclosure with them. We had fun.

Magpies and Dolphins

Scientist now realize that birds have self-recognition. I think the more we study this type of stuff, the more we are going to realize how similar all living beings are to one another.

Here is another story about dolphins teaching one another.

Sir Penguin

A fun story about a penguin in Scotland that has been knighted by the Norwegian Army.

Our patio buddies

In addition to feeding the birds on the patio we have a family of rats (or maybe some type of mouse, cant tell) that live in our patio closet and eat the bird seed we put down. We put some of the seed by the closet door especially for them. They recently had some little ones (as you can see in the photo).

More Yeti stuff

I did an earlier post on the possible sighting of a yeti, and now scientist may have possible hairs that belong to one.

I am torn about people discovering yetis to exists. Part of me is very curious, and I'm always amused at the modern scientific worlds ongoing realization that they indeed do not know everything; and the other part of me is going to hate to see these yetis captured, dissected, kept in zoos and so on. Then you'll have the dumb ass idiots that will want to go hunt them.

It seems if they do exist, then they (like much of the animal world) are just trying to stay away from humans.

Best photo of a snail we have ever taken

Zoe, the cats and a squirrel

Conan, the Buddhist dog

Great story about a Buddhist dog in Japan

Moko the Super Hero Dolphin!!

Great story about a dolphin named Moko rescuing some whales

Dallas World Aquarium Video

Dallas World Aquarium

We went to the Dallas World Aquarium this morning. We showed Zoe some otters and she pointed and said "otter", very clearly. Here are some photos.


click on the photo thumbnails to see larger view & read captions