HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!!!
wow! we made it! right into a NEW YEAR!

i really kinda stopped posting blogs sometime last year, with being  overrun by 20+ facebook pages i run, and  nearly that number of blogs as well, and a life, and health, and a kid, and other responsibilities, blogging got put on the back burner...and thats sad, altho i do have most of the events of my life in pictorial and folder format, i dont have much to say about them, because i neglected to blog about them...i make a resolution to..ATTEMPT (bes ti can do is try, lol) to keep it up this year. NO PROMISES, because ill get tired at some point, and push it off, and neglect it, and then another one, and another, until im nearly where i stand now..lol
but youll get what i can give, when i remember to give it.

and, i can TRY to post blog and  have those moments that i havnt posted up, this year as well...youll just have to remember, if your starting here to go and  review my life , that there may be blogs youll need to keep reminding yourself to go and read, id set up an RSS feed for yourself or sign up for email notification, and be notified when i DO post a new public post.

BLAH! what a gloomy day to do anything in...ugh. skys all gloomy grey, and theres NO sun..just what you can see in the sky as  cloud cover, and its bitter cold! took forever to get any winter here in Oklahoma, but man, when it came and arrived, it decided to remind us, that the warmth we suffer might not be so bad, lol

ice crystals on the car...its just cold enough to form ice crystals!

so today both craig and myself got up to do the LAST day of dogg sitting for the JEnsen family who went out of town, Daniel was supposed to be doing this job for a fee of 25$ but, guess whos getting the money? I AM, cause i need a new screen for my used Iphone  he got me (or  gave to me, as hes upgraded his).

these dogs are..HUGE...im sure, with very little effort hey could completely knock me down, the size of the paws alone is massive, nearly the entire size of my fist balled up, they are nearly the size of a small pony!
the black ones an adult, and the browner one is still a puppy! and he eats! MAN! DOES HE EAT! lol, he INHALES that bowl of food! lol
from these images looks like hes lost some wieght, not a ton, but i think its because we didnt leave food out for him all the time, like we do our own dogs, and hes on a schedule, 9am..1 bowl...if he can get some from the other he would, lol, but theres no real ribs showing and no spine, so he seems to be doing ok. we did as we were instructed. 9am 2 scoops of food. and water.

after that, i took my husband out for breakfast...the kid (daniel) was still sleeping when we left, so..he missed out, oh well! lol

so, my plans for today (and every day henceforth, as long as i have the energy and time) is to make sure i keep an updated blog for almost all these blogs. some i wont need to, very little talk or activity happens on them to even post anything more than images if i have any...

but others i intend to actually discuss things...so..WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR!!
i have a PC room i need to organize, so i can be creative with my doll making. :)
i may be back later to talk about that (on another blog).

MICHELLE

Orphaned chimpanzee finds home in Oklahoma City Zoo

Ruben's mother, Rukiya, died of a heart condition shortly after Ruben's birth at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla. Attempts to integrate Ruben into other troops failed before he was brought to Oklahoma City in July.

By Matt Patterson | Published: September 17, 2012   

 

Ruben the chimpanzee's first months in this world have been anything but easy.
His mother, Rukiya, died of a heart condition shortly after his birth at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla. His biological father was deemed too intense for him. And another female chimp at Busch Gardens in Florida also was too much for the pint-size primate.
“Our two females liked him but none of them picked him up, neither of them were that interested,” Lowry Park curator Lee Ann Rottman said. “His father wanted to play all the time and Ruben just wasn't ready for that.”
Rottman said one of the saddest aspects of the early part of Ruben's life was that his mother had already been a surrogate to another baby chimp.
“We had very high hopes for her as a mom,” Rottman said.
But the now 8-month-old chimp looks to have found a home at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Ruben arrived along with three handlers in July on a private jet donated by a supporter of the Lowry Park Zoo.
Ruben has found a surrogate mother in Kito, who has never had any offspring of her own. Ruben was introduced to Kito and Zoe and the rest of their troop after three days of monitoring by zoo staff.
Kito was chosen for the role as surrogate mom because of her success playing the role of surrogate to Siri, another chimpanzee at the zoo. Siri was brought to the Oklahoma City Zoo after her mother's breast milk was found to be nutritionally deficient and could not meet the growing chimp's needs.
“We chose Kito because she has the patience of a saint,” Oklahoma City Zoo curator Laura Bottaro said. “We knew this from how she handled Siri.”
Kito and Ruben were a natural fit, Bottaro said. But Ruben had to be cared for around the clock after his arrival. Baby chimps need to be held at all times, Bottaro said. Staffers at the zoo wore special shirts designed to mimic the hair of chimpanzees.
“The transition from humans can be uncomfortable for the infant because they're not sure they fit in,” Bottaro said. “Once they fit in, they're in.”
No guarantee
Curator Robin Newby said the hierarchies of chimpanzee troops can be complex. And even though Kito had been a successful surrogate before, there was no guarantee it would work again.
“It is very strict and complex,” Newby said. “They feel the need to keep individuals in check at all times. There's a lot of demonstrations either vocally or physically to accomplish that.”

Kito showed off her experience rearing infants almost immediately. When it was bedtime, her technique to keep Ruben near her was the same she had used for Siri. “Her strategy is to gather all of the nice bedding material each night, things like hay and wood wool, which is shredded wood,” Bottaro said. “She puts that stuff around her. She never forced him. She waited for him to come to her. She was saying to him, ‘Unless you want to sleep on a hard floor, you have to be in my vicinity.'”
With the addition of Ruben, the zoo now has nine chimpanzees in two troops. Ruben even bonded quickly with Mwami, the dominant male in his troop. Mwami is protective of Ruben. They're not quite father and son, but more like nephew and fun uncle. Mwami often pats Ruben's head and incites him into play by doing a dance in front of him.
“The one concern I had is this infant was a male and the other two we've had to pair with surrogates were females,” Bottaro said.
“Sometimes in the wild, if the dominant male is not the biological father, that can be a problem. But that didn't happen.”
A ‘true boy'
Even as Ruben clings to the security of adults, he does venture off on his own. Rottman said at Lowry Park, Ruben was rambunctious and a “true boy” who loved to eat.
He has continued on that path in Oklahoma City.
“For a youngster at his age he's very independent,” Newby said. “He'll go back to his surrogate mom for a little check-in and then he's off playing with the dominant male.”
Ruben will remain out of public view until he is fully integrated with all of the zoo's chimps. But that day is coming soon, Bottaro said. And when it does it will be the final step in his journey that took him from Florida to central Oklahoma. It also highlights the cooperation between zoos. It was painful for Rottman to give up Ruben, but she knew it was for the best.
“The staff here truly loved him,” Rottman said. “But we knew this was the right decision and we had so much faith in the staff at Oklahoma City because they've done this before. It is a truly wonderful situation he's in now and we couldn't be more pleased and thankful for that.”

OKC ZOO SADDENED BY DEATH OF GORILLA - (BOM BOM IS GONE)

OKC ZOO SADDENED BY DEATH OF GORILLA

It saddens Oklahoma City Zoo officials to announce the death of a Western lowland gorilla on Monday, June 25. Bom Bom, a 36-year-old silverback died after going into cardiac arrest. A necropsy, animal autopsy was performed and results indicated heart disease as the official cause of death. Diagnosed with heart disease in early 2010, Bom Bom had been on heart medication since that time to alleviate the symptoms of the disease.

Bom Bom was the leader of one of the Zoo’s two troops of lowland gorillas and a guest favorite at Great EscApe.  Considered a very good troop leader by his caregivers, Bom Bom’s family included females Kathy, Emily, Kelele, Mikella, and Ndjole.

Bom Bom arrived at the Oklahoma City Zoo in 2002 from the Audubon Zoo, New Orleans, LA as part of a Species Survival Plan (SSP) breeding recommendation through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA.) One of this SSP's most important roles is to manage gorillas as a population, to ensure that the population remains healthy, genetically-diverse, and self-sustaining. Bom Bom sired two offspring during his lifetime a female, Kitombe, born in 1986, who lives at the Franklin Park Zoo and son George who was born in 2004 to mother Kathy and currently resides at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

Cardiac disease is a major cause of death for adult gorillas. In November 2006, a workshop including physicians, veterinarians, pathologists, and keepers was held to review what is known about gorilla cardiac health, as well as to discuss how to address gorilla health issues. This workshop marked the beginning of the Gorilla Health Project, an initiative to improve our understanding of gorilla health and ways to manage and prevent disease in this species. The meeting identified a critical first step in understanding disease issues of gorillas in zoo environments-- the formation of a comprehensive database incorporating information from individual gorillas' medical, nutrition and husbandry records. This database is essential for the identification of risk factors associated with cardiac disease and other disease syndromes seen in zoo populations. Oklahoma City Zoo participates in this study.

Native to the lowland forests of central and western Africa, Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered. Commercial hunting for meat, habitat loss, and poaching are contributing factors to their status in the wild.

“Bom Bom was such a magnificent animal, his loss will be felt by our entire Zoo family,” said Dwight Scott, Zoo Executive Director.

If you would like to share your memories and thoughts about Bom Bom, please go to the Zoo’s Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/okczoobg. Photos of Bom Bom will be added to the Zoo’s website at okczoo.com and on the fan page. Your photos and memories are welcome.

To see a gallery of Bom Bom, please click here.

-okczoo-

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW:( how sad, i have a painting by him. my 1st primate image is by him. :(

MICHELLE

NEWS - OLIVER , FAMED CHIMPANZEE -DIES :(

Oliver, famed chimpanzee, dies

June 02, 2012 

San Antonio Express-News
By Michelle Casady

Oliver, the chimpanzee who spent much of his life as part of circus shows or in research labs, was found dead Saturday in his bedroom at Primarily Primates, the sanctuary where he spent his last 14 years.

He was at least 55 years old, while the average lifespan for a male chimp in captivity is 35.
Oliver’s girlfriend, Raisin, was by his side when caretakers found him, said Stephen Rene Tello, executive director of the sanctuary.

He came to Primarily Primates from a research lab in Pennsylvania in 1998. Tello said the lab didn’t perform any studies on him during his decade there because the staff could tell he was special: “He was just on a different level; he had very humanlike traits.”

For one, Oliver walked upright almost all the time. His unique qualities drew international attention, and he was dubbed the “Humanzee,” touted as a missing link.

Oliver was the subject of a Discovery Channel documentary in 2006, and the character Caesar in last year’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was said to be based on him.

“But for the last part of his life, he got to live in a safe haven — a nonexploitive, noncommercialized world where he was surrounded by people who love him and in companionship with others of his kind,” Tello said.

Shelly Ladd, enrichment coordinator at the sanctuary, said part of her job was to keep life interesting for the aging chimp, who was mostly blind, had no teeth and suffered from arthritis.

“He loved coconut sorbet — that got the biggest hoots and hollers,” she said. “But if he didn’t like something, he’d hand the bowl back to you,” like the time he tried sugar-free pistachio pudding.

Tello said a “dignified final ceremony” has been planned. Oliver’s body will be cremated, and the ashes spread over the sanctuary’s grounds. And Raisin will be reintroduced to some old friends.

HUMOR - COLLATERAL

Collateral

I accompanied my husband when he went to get a haircut. Reading a magazine, I found a hairstyle I liked for myself, and I asked the receptionist if I could take the magazine next door to make a copy of the photo.
"Leave some ID, a driver's license or a credit card," she said.
"But my husband is here getting a haircut," I explained.
"Yes," she replied. "But I need something you'll come back for."

POLL - U@ FANS PICK RATTLE & HUM AS U2 FAN FAVORITE MOVIE!

Poll Results: Rattle And Hum is U2 Fans' Favorite U2 Movie

@U2, April 29, 2012

U2's first foray into movie-making remains the favorite of U2 fans, according to a recent poll conducted here on @U2. In March, we asked "Which of these is your favorite movie?" and gave fans four choices. Among the more than 2,300 fans that voted, Rattle And Hum was picked by just under 40 percent. That was plenty of votes to beat out the second-place finisher, U2 3D. From The Sky Down and It Might Get Loud followed in third and fourth, respectively.
Our current home page poll question asks fans which Bono character from Zoo TV they prefer -- The Fly or MacPhisto. And, while we're on the subject of voting, we're planning to begin releasing results from the 2012 U2 Fan Survey within the next week or so. That survey remains open until end-of-day on Monday, April 30th.

maybe im a bit off with the rest of the U2 lovers, but i thought U23d was AMAZING! and thus, stands as MY personal favorite U2 movie, i havnt even seen, IT MIGHT GET LOUD, or FROM THE SKY DOWN ...yet. lol
MICHELLE

NEWS - 2.9 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEAR HARRAH, OKLAHOMA

2.9-magnitude earthquake strikes near Harrah, Oklahoma

A 2.9-magnitude earthquake struck Saturday morning 26 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, about 10 miles northeast of Harrah, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake hit about 7:45 a.m., the USGS said.

 

BY STAFF REPORTS | Published: April 21, 2012