Lets Take A Bunny Break and Have A Monday Mantra

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
Robert McCloskey

This is Riley bun. One of Heartland's resident sweethearts.

A Man and His Dog

The video is fuzzy so I do apologize. Nate says "I am not doing this for the camera" I dont care if he did or didnt. Listen close. The man is sobbing with relief that someone is going to take care of his only family...his dog of 14 years.

Little Heroes

West Nile Virus was huge concern after the storm. All that standing water left people vulnerable to mosquitoes. An unexpected group of rescuers showed up.

Unbeknownst to most of the first responders was the fact that New Orleans had an ally in its fight against mosquito-born disease.

Female dragonflies lay their eggs (nymphs) in water or on floating plants. After Katrina their eggs were deposited in the floodwater. The aquatic larvae hatched. From then on, they started devouring mosquitoes, dive-bombing them with aerial acrobatics that made the Coast Guard helicopters look clumsy by comparison.

Sometimes when a corpse was found floating around the streets of New Orleans, washed up against a chain-link fence or concrete wall, dragonflies hovered around the victim. Never did the dragonflies touch the flesh, hunting instead for the maggots and fleas and mosquitoes, drawn to protect Katrina's victims just as they did its survivors.

(The Great Deluge, Douglas Brinkley)

Just Watch

Try not to form an opinion about anyone or anything you see. Try and forget the way you might already think about this crisis and look at it like its the first time you have seen it. Just ask yourself...."What if that were me?" (and I mean about every person you see here, the people, the cops, the troops, even the president) "What if that were me?" What would you have done?

Propaganda

Racial violence?
Wonder which store she looted to get these fine shoes

There was looting during Katrina but it was on a much smaller scale than the media led you to believe. Nobody was "raping babies in the Superdome" (The National Guard was in the the Superdome before Katrina hit and they suffered right along with the folks inside and did not allow this to go on.)

"They are shooting at rescue helicopters".......Not one shot was reported by the Louisiana Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries or the Coast Guard (the very first government agencies on the scene...Thank You!) These folks didnt wait for orders or a plan. They just started rescuing.



"Why didnt those people evacuate?"



There was no plan to deal with the elderly, the disabled, and Memorial Hospital was completely forgotten about for days.



"Seniors were trembling all alone, left behind by careless family members on the absurd assumption that they'd be okay. Many of them died in terrified solitude-no white-suited nurse holding their trembling hands, no nun telling them God was near. Just a mad rush of sewage water, filling up their lungs, snuffing them out with cruel vengeance. The oxygen tanks emptied and, after that, in some cases there wasnt even a soul around to witness their last breath. One can only pray that they were in a coma or unconscious at the grim time of reckoning." (Doug Brinkley, The Great Deluge)

The Big Easy

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
This was my view 9 1/2 years ago when I visited NOLA. Beautiful isn't it? It still is.

I am going to attempt this again. I don't know if I will be able to finish. 9 1/2 years ago was my last trip to New Orleans. I was there to sprinkle my brother's ashes in Lake Pontchartrain (as were his final wishes). I haven't been back yet. One day I want his son to see the city that his dad loved so much. I have only been relieved twice in my life that my brother was dead. The first was in those days and weeks following The Bitch that was Katrina.

I hope you will follow along with me. I want to show you pictures that not everyone saw and I will try not to show anything too graphic. I will share excerpts from the best book (in my opinion) written about Katrina.
The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley

I want people to remember what happened there....so we may never leave another American city to rot.

That was enough for the Louisiana SPCA, which brooked no discussion and no debate: with the announcement that a major hurricane was on the way, the preset plan went into motion. (The Great Deluge, DB)

263 dog and cats and a few other species were evacuated from the shelter on Japonica Street. It was incredible. No discussion or debate?

No such plan was in place for St. Rita's Nursing Home. The animal shelter had a well organized plan but St. Hell's nursing home let 35 drown. I cannot let go of my anger at this. There are no excuses for not having a plan for the most helpless among us.

A Tale Of Two Bunnies

This is the handsome and kind Pippin. Bunny man Pipster has the most easy going way about him. I am surprised by him. Pippin spent 8 years in a backyard hutch. As I have stated before, Heartland is overflowing with bunnies, there is NO MORE room. Uh huh, well they made room for Pippin. An 8 year sentence of loneliness. Never to have human companionship, not another bunny to snuggle, feet never touching the grass, powerful back legs and feet left to waste away to atrophy. Rusted food bowls, no soft place to get off of the wire, nails long and curling sideways. No treaties, no hay, no nothing.

Pippin has captured all of us. He is so very precious and accepting. He is quietly curious about everything. I love this little bunny dearly. He was a prisoner to indifference. I had the honor of naming him.

Meet Baby Girl (her name is still pending I think)

Did I mention there is no more room at Heartland? Uh huh. This wee one showed up at the animal shelter. Heartland got an email from a visiting vet and a picture. "Do you have room" No, but we will take her anyway. There is no real story here. Supposedly she was found wandering and taken to the shelter. Sorry, I just dont believe that one. I think a family bought her and then someone decided for whatever monsterous reason to cut off her ears and that family, rather than face the demon living in their own house and being too cheap to provide vet care, dumped her at the animal shelter. That is my theory and I am sticking with it.

She is cautious and quick. When I visit her I just wait patiently for her to come to me. Eventually she does and will enjoy a head rub. She isnt really head shy which surprises me. I apologize to her on behalf of humans constantly. She was a prisoner of cruelty and depravity.

Over the last few weeks I have thought about which is worse....Indifference or Cruelty. I have come to the conclusion the indifference is the winner. Cruelty is not as rampant. Indifference is an abomination.

What do you think friends?