Years ago, we bottle fed a baby pigeon that someone left on the doorstep of the Valley Humane Society. Eric’s mom was working there and brought it to us thinking we might be able to take care of him. We grew very fond of him and kept him as a pet. But, poor Hairy died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 3. Pancreatic cancer…. How strange…

I hear of more and more animals with cancers and other odd immune system diseases. It really is becoming quite common – which is horrifying. My rescue dog came to me with an allergy to her own staph bacteria. She’d break out in these horrible red blotches all over her body. She’s better now.

Every time people burn and there is alot of woodsmoke, I get deathly ill. What this does to animals who are outside all the time in it would be an interesting study. With all these artificial logs, etc, who knows what’s blowing out there into the air we breathe. We can go hide in the house; but, wild animals and birds are stuck breathing whatever we send out into the air.

I don’t live far from the sewage plant; and, I see waterfowl sitting on the sewage plant ponds. That can’t be good for them. Discarded plastic causes all kinds of havoc to the digestive systems of animals who swallow it – which they do often and the frequency and the damage has been well documented. Suds from cleaners, medicines, pesticides, all end up in the water.

The ocean has whirlpool areas where every bit of garbage ever sent into the sea congregates. Whales, turtles, and other sea creatures swim through these human garbage filled areas.

Thanks for bringing up this topic, Gary. We all need to be more conscious of what we put in our environment and what we send out. We have to take care with our animals too. Whenever we walk by a house that I know sprays poisons heavily on their bright green lawns, etc, I pull my dog away from it and tell her “poison!” Everytime she goes to stick her nose into something that looks ghastly, I tell her “poison!” I’m hoping that someday she’ll associate the word with things that are not to be touched. One can hope….