She cried her heart out all night until Bear Manager Pernille took up motherly duties and brought her to her room to socialise her with people. She became best friends with one of our resident cats – black Tat Tat – and indeed loves all cats.
In September 2008, Kirvil Skinnarland came back again to see us in Chengdu. Kirvil has been nothing short of marvellous in generously steering Animals Asia through a strategic planning process and was on site to advise the team on putting some of those plans together.
It was love at first sight for her and for Kaya and, after asking Pernille if she could care for her for a few days in her room, the decision was made by Kirvil to take Kaya back to live with her in the US – and so Kaya became an official resident of Washington State on the first of May.
In her words: "Someone recently asked me (a question I have been expecting), why did you bring a dog from China when there are dogs who need homes here? While that is true, in my view, a dog who needs a home is the same whether she is here or somewhere else in the world. To me, a comment like that is like saying, why do you give money to help starving children in Africa, when there are still children going hungry in the US?
At least a homeless dog in North America will have a home and reasonable care in a shelter while waiting for adoption, and if not adopted, then he or she will have a humane death.
In the many Asian countries with street dogs, there are few, if any, shelters, and of the few shelters that exist, many cannot provide even basic humane care for the dogs they have. The street dogs face starvation, disease, cruelty, and in China, a long agonising trip to the live animal markets where they are beaten to death.
Kaya is just as affectionate, sensitive, intelligent and loyal as any “American” or “Canadian” dog I have owned before. She, and the millions like her in China and elsewhere in the world, deserve better.
And without any quarantine requirements in the US or Canada, bringing a “Chinese mongrel” (the breed specified in her papers) home is a relatively easy matter. "
The pictures say it all – above, Kaya as a tiny pup, and now safe and sound in Kirvil’s arms. The latest pictures of Kirvil and Kaya were taken beside beautiful Lake Wenatchee, which is fed by glaciers in Washington State’s Cascade Mountains and is really cold.
Kirvil says, “Kaya likes the water and I’m going to see if she will swim with me when the water gets a bit warmer. She is the sweetest animal and a perfect companion. She is so good-natured and gentle. She loves my cats and one of them, Max, is very fond of her”.
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News has come in from zoos in China that their captive animals reacted in various ways to last week’s solar eclipse. Elephants and giraffes apparently returned indoors, thinking it was night, and cranes and flamingos fell asleep before emerging again when it became light – starting the life of another day.
Wednesday’s eclipse of six minutes and 39 seconds, when the moon came between the earth and the sun (blocking the sun’s rays), was the longest solar eclipse of the century and was visible across Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.
As I was on my way to our sanctuary in Vietnam, Rainbow called from Chengdu and was thrilled to report that he had been standing outside the rehab area of our sanctuary when the eclipse caused “night” for over six minutes. Rainbow managed to get some great photos of the historic event.
So how did our bears react to the phenomenon? Apparently by doing .................. absolutely nothing. In fact, it seems our carefree residents barely raised an eyebrow between them, continuing to enjoy their picnic on the grass! But as Rainbow reported, it was a different story for our human team members at Chengdu.
Rainbow’s eclipse diary 22 July
Chengdu was very cloudy this am and we didn’t expect to see the eclipse at all. But still we prepared ourselves, with cell phones and cameras in hand. And some, like Forrest, David and Dai [pictured here] equipped themselves with thick safety glasses, which the maintenance team uses in welding.
All of a sudden, we saw a small, light-blue hole in the clouds and then the most exciting thing happened – the sun partially disappeared, blocked by the moon! Some of us cried! I didn’t, as I was using every second to record this once-per-500-years phenomenon (in MBRC) by camera and video camera. Often, the sun disappeared in the clouds.
Then without notice, the day became dark, at an amazing pace. It was a unique experience to witness such a natural phenomenon, even though we missed seeing a total eclipse.
At the time, all the lights on the balcony of the admin building, bear houses, and accommodation were switched on. I don't know about the others, but I felt quite wired! It was nothing like 9am – more like 9pm. In the darkness (made even darker by the cloudy weather) I ran to the other end of the building where I could see a few blurry black balls slowly roaming around the enclosure.
I checked with [bear worker] Chen on the walkie-talkie to see if all the bears were doing anything special to “celebrate” such a magnificent moment. "Nothing abnormal! They are actually enjoying their food on the grass,” Chen walkie-talkied back.
When some light returned minutes later, Rainbow snapped our lovely Laetizia, clearly unfazed by all the fuss:
And as to our other laid-back bears, vet nurse volunteer Judy sent this lovely message summing up her feeling as to why they didn’t respond to the eclipse:
I have a lovely vision of them all just lazing around doing very little and not letting anything interfere with that nothingness. Animals Asia provides all they’d need – they know you’ll switch the sun back on when you’ve finished testing or weighing it.
PS: Later that morning, dedicated vet team members, (clockwise from top) Caroline, Jen and Wendy, had a sleeping Charly on the surgery table for a routine health-check and couldn't resist posing for the obvious – please welcome our own Charlie’s Angels, Chengdu-style!
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Marc Bekoff (our wonderful friend and renowned animal ethologist) and I attended and spoke at the Minding Animals Conference in Newcastle, near Sydney, Australia last week.
Marc arrived in Newcastle in time to attend the blessing of the animals, and I know he won't mind if I share his touching message with you now.
... today I read the opening verse [see bottom] for a blessing of the animals held at a local church … I was accompanied by lovely Bella [pictured here with Marc] ... and some dogs. It was a great experience and very progressive ... there were representatives of many different faiths, ranging from Christianity, Buddhism, Baha’i, Hinduism, etc, etc, and a woman who is the first chaplain at the largest animal hospital in the southern hemisphere.
;)
Everyone lit a candle for animals used in various venues, ranging from laboratories for education and research, to circuses, zoos, and for food and clothes ... the head of the church then ended with one of the most awesome speeches I’ve heard about how we must respect animals, reminding us that animals are subjects of a life and not mere objects ... he really came down on abusive laboratory research and then ended with a wonderful message of hope .... really moved me ...
All in all, a very wonderful afternoon and the major take-home message was that “indifference is not an option ...”
Marc later used this message to open the conference in Newcastle, which incidentally was called “Minding Animals” after one of his many books.
The following is from “Priceless – the vanishing beauty of a fragile planet”, by Australian writer, Bradley Trevor Greive.
For endangered species we are both their greatest enemy and their only hope.
These wonderful creatures will not argue their case.
They will not put up a fight.
They will not beg for reprieve.
They will not say goodbye.
They will not cry out.
They will just vanish.
And after they are gone, there will be silence.
And there will be stillness.
And there will be empty places.
And nothing you can say will change this.
Nothing you can do will bring them back.
With so many lives hanging in the balance, the paths we choose today
will decide the fate of the world.
So it’s up to us. It’s up to you and me to decide who lives and who dies.
And Marc concluded with these beautiful words:
If we can make small positive changes to the way we relate to our fellow creatures and our environment, if we can make just a small effort to improve the adverse conditions we have created, then this will set in motion many more opportunities for new life to flourish.
Anyone who has seen a sunrise, climbed a tree, smelled a rose, held a
kitten or listened to a whale’s haunting love song knows deep in their hearts just how amazing this planet really is.
To preserve our home and the priceless animals who dwell within it
you need only see the world as it is and have a vision of how it could be.
Then hold fast to this vision and let it guide your steps, your voice
and your heart.
If you can do that then there will be hope, there will be beauty, there will be joy, there will be life on earth.
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Husband and wife artists, Zeng Jianyong and Tianmu, have sent us their most beautiful paintings of bears as their generous gift to our Moon Bear Rescue campaign.
Zeng (whose art is worth many thousands of US dollars) shows the innocence, sorrow and vulnerability of caged bears. His work became even more profound for us when we heard that he painted the cage using rust – so perfectly and so tragically reflecting the misery of 7,000 majestic moon bears, suffering in silence in their iron prisons – begging for respect and release.
Tianmu's painting has many influences. The tadpoles are inspired by a famous Chinese cartoon, “Little Tadpoles Looking for Mum” and portray the plight of farmed cubs. The lotus flower on the head has a cross-like stamen and on the snout are the seeds of the lotus - together these convey the process of life. However, this image is cut in half, which Tianmu explains symbolises the tortured life of all farmed bears.
Together their paintings show animals created and destroyed for humankind's benefit, rather than being created for the life they were meant to live.
Like so many caring citizens in China, Zeng and Tianmu are using their talent in defence of the voiceless – art imitating life, and its shameful last breath.
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Being on swine flu lockdown at least had the upside of catching up on the backlog of emails, and enjoying the bears out in the sanctuary (once the authorities had released me from room to sanctuary quarantine).
Just lately, I’ve discovered the “new” technology (for me) of an iPod, which my sister Anne bought and uploaded with some of my favourite tunes.
On a glorious Sunday afternoon, I stood on the roof of House 5 looking down at Freedom – missing both of her front paws – and coincidentally had Elton John playing “The One” at full blast in my headphones.
As she sat in her swimming pool gently spinning a wooden log in the water with her stumpy front legs and blinked up at me with the sunshine sparkling on her fur, Elton’s lyrics “like freedom feels when wild horses run” was never more apt. And once again, I knew why we are here.
Of course I didn't have my camera to hand – but here is another stunning picture of Freedom by “her” pool to set the scene:
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